Information technology experts have predicted, businessmen and Egyptian officials, a marked revival of the e-commerce transactions and investment services, to be submitted through e-government, following the activation of the electronic signature law, which was issued upon the resolution this week, as well as the establishment of a specialized body for the development of the IT industry.
According to experts, the new law will give the argument of any legal document issued by the Internet and be recognized before the courts, and pointed out that the implementation of all transactions will be in the government administrative services, investors and businessmen, such as the various permits and customs services, tax and e-business transactions, such as sales, import and export and the establishment of new companies, and trading in the stock market, the banking transactions of all kinds, which would give e-commerce and significant impact, and allow to bypass many obstacles, obstacles that were impeding the traditional trade and prevent their growth.
They said that increasing the base of the expert computer users and visitors to the Internet and the interest of businessmen in Egypt and Arab countries, the introduction of information technology in various transactions, will contribute to the revival of trade across the Internet, especially the new law provided a large part of the protection of this trade and give them legal status.
According to Mohammed al-Masri, the Vice-President of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, said the terms of the new law will open the way e-commerce merchants to Egypt who were reluctant to engage in this kind of advanced trade, for fear of fraud and forgery, adding that the law providing the legal and safe way to transport documents and the signing of export and import contracts, and the conclusion of transactions between the parties, without the need for travel and the waste of time and effort. He predicted that the Egyptian e-commerce with men and business organizations during the coming period, which reflected positively on the volume of this trade which is still by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce statistics, modest, and noted that the participation of business organizations in the formulation and discussion of the law will make the most of this law in the recovery of trade exchange between Egypt and Egypt's.
He explained Dr. Raafat Radwan, head of the Center for Information and Decision Support, the nature of the electronic signature, he means to ascertain the reality of e-commerce transactions and persons responsible, through electronic communication, where the party deal to send and receive messages and documents using a special encrypted fingerprint or be agreed upon, and prevent strangers, and grant documents and e-papers as the official document legally recognized, which reassures customers through this medium of their rights in the event of a dispute, and this is reflected in the trading business. Abdel-Alim said Nawara, a businessman and chairman of the Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, former law means that the activation of the existence of the necessary legislative infrastructure to ensure and support the use of the Internet for the exchange of trade, adding that the trend towards participation of bilateral and collective Arab, African and European law should have led to activation of the electronic signature method for the development of trade and export promotion , especially after the e-commerce has become one of the most important pillars of the development of exports, whether the commodity or service in the world. Nawara said that it will take some time to understand the business way of dealing through the Internet before the conclusion of large transactions using this medium evolving.
For his part, Dr. Mohamed Salem, director of the Center for Information Technology of Egypt, to the high speed of electronic exchanges between Egypt and the outside world, as the pulse to about 400 over the past three years, and their contribution to the global communications cables, and connectivity services doubled between them and the outside world to some 12 thousand Service, in addition to the presence of a strong infrastructure for internal communications, as well as the structure of legislative and good investment, and pointed out that all this will encourage greater reliance on e-commerce as a safe, fast and advanced to strengthen the trade relations and economic affairs in the coming period.
According to Dr. Sheriff Hashem, Director of the Commerce and e-business in the Egyptian Ministry of Communications in a recent study by the fact that the existence of a law, an electronic signature is the most important components of the legislative work in the area of electronic commerce, because it regulates the work of e-contracts and e-payment smart cards, in addition to the possibility of identifying imposing taxes without manipulation.
He added that the volume of e-commerce transactions not to exceed two billion dollars, compared to hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide, stressing the importance of engaging a faster pace in e-commerce as the pattern of trade in the future, which depends on the employment of the latest techniques in the field of communication and information. He pointed out that the Arabic e-commerce need to harmonize legislation to protect and reassure its clients of their rights, which is expected to create a climate of such trade will inevitably evolving in the reduction of the growing economic gap between the Arab countries and Western developed counterparts, as well as to strengthen economic and trade cooperation between the Arab countries with each other.
