Presentation
E-commerce and the Digital Opportunity: the Need for International Cooperation and its Priority Areas

Mr. Yeon-sung Shin
Deputy Director-General, International Economic Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Korea

Economic development in Korea's recent history has largely meant the building of manufacturing bases for physical production. Such a mode of economic development presents barriers to poor later-comer economies. The launching of economic development often requires large-scale production organization, a large amount of initial capital investment and resource materials. The age of information technology and the recent globalization have changed much of this picture, and the key element epitomizing the transformation is the emergence of e-commerce.

Through these recent transformations, new freedom has been achieved. It is no longer necessary to build large production organizations. We are in a network age and the financial market has become more dynamic and fluid. Instead of capital and natural resources, what are necessary now are knowledge and creativity. Unlike in the past, the starting point is not the home market but the global market, which has become more open and closer to all.

To enjoy this new opportunity, people with technical knowledge are called for, in addition to basic equipment and telecommunication lines that will connect us to the outside world. The need to have these three key elements in place presents us with a challenge.

The data on Internet use vary significantly, depending on sources. Despite the difference in data, the point is the same: Internet use is extremely low in developing countries. Since the speed of IT development is so fast, the gap between those with access to IT and the Internet and those without, become wider at the current speed of IT development. This is a problem of unprecedented proportions. A key resource is human resource development.

There are over 50 cooperation projects related to promoting the digital opportunity in international forums. However, despite the increasing importance of information and communication technologies, still only about 1% of all existing ODA programs are designed to address the need for IT development. It could be that the various efforts to promote the digital opportunity would be more efficiently managed and yield better results if they shared a common emphasis on e-commerce.

That would give us a more solid focus for the widely varying efforts for human resource development currently under way. Training and education efforts would become more targeted, with the focus on e-commerce. It would offer a clear sense of purpose and direction in building telecom infrastructure lines and public access points. In this way it may be possible to find a much larger number of sponsors from the private sector and the world business community.

Various consumer protection and privacy protection efforts, such as certification and encryption, are designed to promote e-commerce activities by fostering people's confidence in e-commerce transactions. The Internet revolution and the rise of e-commerce promise more active participation of small players in economic activities. To realize this promise, some governments are creating e-commerce markets in which small and medium businesses can join and become involved in the global market. There are various efforts and activities being implemented by United Nations-affiliated organizations, the WTO, the OECD, APEC and ASEM. The large number and complex technical nature of the issues involved makes these activities and efforts appear to be overlapping sometimes.

In terms of what can be done, one thing is that education and training cooperation has to continue, and they should continue with a clear focus on e-commerce. Public awareness campaigns in developing economies should be further boosted based on international cooperation. The privatization of telcos and the introduction of more competition are necessary pre-conditions for promoting e-commerce and the digital opportunity in developing countries. In terms of more physical telecom infrastructure building, the developed and developing worlds have both converging and diverging interests. If there is a more specific focus, such as the one on e-commerce, it should be possible to sort out the similarities and differences of views more clearly and devise action programs more effectively.

Also, in promoting the digital opportunity, developing economies should be encouraged to participate more actively in e-commerce-related international harmonization efforts. With more active participation, developing economies should be able to incorporate their interests in the emerging international norms and standards in e-commerce and ensure that e-commerce becomes a more effective tool in their development.

There are many different efforts underway to promote the global digital opportunity. With an e-commerce focus, these efforts may be better served, more effectively managed and they may produce more tangible efforts. That is because an e-commerce focus will offer more specific and targeted objectives for the efforts and it will invite more active participation from the private sector.