Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce Minister, Phillip Paulwell explained that the legislation aimed "to modernize the approach to commercial transactions, allowing for the use of modern technology in such transactions, and is critical for the future development of the private and public sectors in Jamaica."
According to the Technology Minister, government was encouraged by the growth of e-commerce, e-banking and e-government services and "deems it an imperative to ensure that there is a legal and regulatory framework in place for financial and commercial transactions over the Internet, thereby promoting legal certainty in relationship to electronic transaction."
The Bill, he said, also addressed security concerns surrounding transactions over the Internet. "I know that many of us are very concerned about doing business and passing your personal information over the Internet [so] the Bill seeks to address that, in that there is a reliable method of authenticating a person's identity and there is no possibility of the sender of communication denying that it was sent by that person," he explained.
In addition, Minister Paulwell told the House, companion legislation would be promulgated, which will address matters such as abuse of privacy, cyber piracy, misuse of personal data, infringement of copyright, and computer hacking. A public education campaign is also slated to be undertaken to encourage more Jamaicans to use this mode of doing business.
The Electronic Transactions Bill, he informed, conformed to internationally accepted principles and practices as influenced by the model law on electronic commerce, which was adopted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade in 1996. The model law, he said, was formulated "as a basis for countries to evaluate and to modernize aspects of their laws and practices for transactions involving the use of computerized or other modern techniques, and for the establishment of relevant legislation where none exist."
