A panel of industry experts hammered out the questions posed by the E-commerce Green Paper at First Tuesday in Johannesburg last night, following the unexpected cancellation by Andile Ngcaba, director-general of the Department of Communications.
Ngcaba was meant to discuss the Green Paper (GP) with First Tuesday members in Johannesburg, while minister of communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri would do the same at the First Tuesday event held simultaneously in Cape Town.
Both cancelled their appearances, with apologies for the short notice.
The Green Paper was instead discussed at the Johannesburg event by a high-level panel consisting of Wim Mostert, manager, electronic law solutions with Deloitte & Touche; Doug Franke, e-business manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers; Mark Heyink, head of e-business legal risk management with KPMG; Piet van der Merwe, associate partner at Accenture; and Grant Brewer, director of e-commerce at Ernst & Young.
Though the panellists approached the issues from various aspects, the consensus was that while government appears to have a uniform goal in mind, the method of attaining that goal has thus far appeared to be slow and directionless.
The timeframe of 24 months between idea and legislation was far too long, Brewer noted, when one considered the speed at which the industry is affected by the GP functions. Brewer also pointed out a key issue ignored in the GP - that of SA business globalisation, and how it might be affected by SA`s efforts at legislating e-commerce.
As Heyink commented, government has to take note of the international ramifications of the Green Paper. He urged government to work towards an environment of light-touch legislation, with self-regulation by e-commerce players.
Mostert observed that while current e-commerce and e-business transactions are not necessarily illegal or invalid, business in general would not risk advancements in the e-commerce industry until there is a statutory guideline from which to work.
He also suggested that government should focus on fast-tracking the fundamental issues, which when settled would open doors to the possible ad hoc regulation of other, additional issues.
Franke recommended a course of action for business that would unite smaller companies in protecting intellectual property rights in a global economy, and urged government to learn from the lessons of other countries legislating e-commerce.
Van der Merwe closed with an advocation for business to remember to differentiate between government`s roles as an enabler and as a business. He suggested that businesses try to work with government in the Public Private Partnership programme aimed at bringing public and private sector players together.
Related stories:
Ivy poisons First Tuesday meeting
Share
