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Law drafted to facilitate e-biz

UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh is going to have a law to facilitate electronic commerce eliminating the need for paper documents for business deals.
Bangladesh Law Commission drafted the law as the growth of electronic commerce was being retarded for want of a legal framework that recognises digital signatures and other electronic documents.
The draft on Information Technology (Electronic Transaction) Act, prepared in February this year, was circulated among the stakeholders and relevant forums to elicit opinions before it takes the final shape.
The proposed act will have enough provisions to check cyber crimes which are not covered by any existing law of the land.
It aims to eliminate barriers to ECommerce, promote legal and business infrastructures to implement secure E-transactions, curtail the need for paper documents and signatures, facilitating electronic filing in government agencies and ensuring efficient delivery of elec-
tronic records from government offices.
IT professionals made their preliminary observations on the draft as its highlights were presented at a roundtable at Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) yesterday.
FBCCI president Yusuf Abdullah Harun lauded the Commission's initiative, while leaders of IT bodies S M Kamal, Habibullah N Karim and SM Iqbal, and lawyers Barrister Tanjibul Alam and Moinul Islam Chowdhury also spoke.
FBCCI director for IT affairs Akhtaruzzaman Manju said the Federation's Standing Committee on IT will hold more seminar and discussions to shape up a private sector view on the draft within next two or three weeks. Their recommendations would be conveyed to the Law Commission, he added.
Computer-based information communication and digital technology have made the global trade transactions easier, cheaper and quicker, but Bangladesh's business community is still reluctant to go for electronic trade as existing laws
only accept paper records and documents, signatures, cheques and other manuals.
So, transactions in electronic form are often not recognised in Bangladesh's courts, thereby retarding the growth of ECommerce here, the Commission viewed.
As global trade is increasingly being dependent on electronic forms, Bangladesh urgently needs a proper law to facilitate electronic commerce and eliminate barriers to it, the Commission felt.
The draft has been based on the Model Law on E-Commerce framed in 1996 by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
Singapore enacted Electronic Transactions Act, 1998 and India recently enacted the Information Technology Act, 2000.
In their acts, both Singapore and India excluded documents of negotiable instruments, powers of attorney, trusts, wills and contracts for the sale or conveyance of immovable property from the operation of law.