Draft laws to govern how Bahamian based organisations conduct e-commerce could be brought before Parliament next month, Michael Halkitis, the parliamentary secretary in the ministry of finance, said yesterday, heralding the possibility that the drawn-out process of legislation creation that began under the FNM will soon end.
The draft legislation will deal with customer protection, the legal differences between electronic transactions and physical transactions, computer-related crimes, and holding Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) liable for infringements.
Mr. Halkitis said, “At the same time the government has under review the various intellectual property rights laws for revision where necessary to ensure that appropriate protection for such rights exist under Bahamian law for materials on the Internet and for computer generated works.
“There’s a bit more of an urgency now to put these things in place so that people are not in a position of trying to resolve disputes arising out of Internet activity without clear verification in a piece of legislation as to what the solution and legal outcome is likely to be,” added Ms. Bethel.
“It will also serve to convey the degree of certainty and inspire confidence in using the Internet, particularly for commercial purposes.”
The laws, along with other plans to grow e-commerce as the third pillar of the Bahamian economy, have led the government to estimate that it will take between five and fifteen years for The Bahamas’ full transformation to an information society,” Mr. Halkitis said.
He said, ” Within the ministry [of finance], being mindful of the need to provide a carefully prepared agenda for action, we have in progress a full review of an appropriate Information Society strategy which, when completed will feed a policy for information and communications technology in The Bahamas into the next decade.”
Mr. Halkitis welcomed private sector participation in growing the industry that the former government chose to be among The Bahamas’ three most important economic sectors, and which the present government has said it is committed to developing.
“This augurs well for The Bahamas as it moves to position itself in the new economy,” Mr. Halkitis said. “The greater the awareness among citizens of the advantages to be gained from e-business, the more likely the conversion to this mode of conducting affairs will be.”
