Project Plan for the Development of e-commerce and e-government 2000-2002
I. Introduction
The government of Iceland's vision of the information society, which was published in October 1996, defines three priority projects which are considered to play an important role in its realization. These are:
- an initiative in the field of education,
- adequate transmission capacity and security in the telecom system, and
- adherence to the government's tendering policy in software purchases.
In light of rapid developments in information and telecom technology, the Information Society Taskforce considers it necessary for the government to review its focuses. International cooperation is now focusing closely on the development of e-commerce which can lead to greater economic growth, job creation, increased international trade and improved social conditions (cf. the OECD Ministerial Conference in Ottawa, October 1998).
E-commerce is commerce in which various transaction-related data is transmitted and stored with the help of information and telecom technology. Transactions can involve traditional public sector services, sale of traditional goods or services, sale of digital material, capital transfers, imports and exports documents, and tenders and bids, to mention but a few.
E-commerce is growing rapidly in Iceland and the international community has gone a long way towards developing the rules and norms which in general will apply to electronic transactions. Thus it is an appropriate time for public sector bodies in Iceland to review the legal framework, formulate rules and norms and set a good precedent by introducing electronic public sector commerce and electronic government.
The Taskforce, the Joint Ministerial and Althing Consultative Committee on the Information Society and the Joint Consultative Committee of Municipal Authorities, Industry and Employees on the Information Society have been in consultation about issues involving the development of the information society since 1997.
These groups now propose that the government should make e-commerce and e-government the fourth priority project in implementation of its policy on the information society, and recommend the allocation of increased funds to this area.
Birgir Már Ragnarsson and Einar Hannesson have drawn up these proposals with the Information Society Taskforce and its consultative committees.
The following is their joint proposal for a project plan for the development of e-commerce and e-government in Iceland.
The Information Society Taskforce
Guðbjörg Sigurðardóttir, Chair
II. E-government
The preconditions for being able to provide public sector services by electronic means are general public access to computers and the Internet, general confidence in e-commerce and the possibility of taking advantage of such service at little cost.
A survey conducted in November 1999 reveals that 71% of people (aged 16-75) in Iceland have a computer at home and almost 70% have access to the Internet at home, school or place of work. The international community is rapidly establishing regulatory frameworks to increase the security of e-commerce and agreeing on standards which Iceland can take into account and introduce.
All the preconditions are therefore in place for Iceland to remain one of the leading nations in e-government, if the tasks is followed through systematically.
The following measures are proposed:
Development and pilot projects:
- Good development and pilot projects in e-government and/or e-commerce will be given priority in the budget for 2001 and 2002. Systematic work is needed to make interactive services for the general public secure and accessible on the Internet, as well as systematic development by public sector institutions and scope for employees to handle tasks in this field. Interactive projects that will serve large sections of the community need to be prioritised. It must also be ensured that the public sector sets a good precedent, by transferring its purchasing to electronic format and conducting various forward-looking experiments.
- It is important to develop e-government gradually alongside traditional administration, and to enable people to acquire information and services easily via the Internet, wherever they live in Iceland, round the clock. The government website is the public's electronic gateway to information and services from ministries and government agencies. The public's impression of e-government is linked to people's experience of the government website and how easy it is to present matters there and have them handled electronically. Thus there is a need to ensure the ongoing development and building of the government website (www.stjr.is) which is already an important information provider granting access to a wide variety of public information and services. The next step needed is a substantial increase in interactive service and self-service for the public. It is therefore proposed that a website administrator should be appointed on behalf of the government in the first half of 2000. The website administrator would work with the Website Editorial Board and Website Committee on reviewing the interface and harmonizing its development.
- A plan for developing an information provider for the public shall be drawn up and launched in 2000. This will require cooperation with a large number of administrative bodies, government agencies and municipal authorities. The sum of ISK 5 million has been allocated towards this project in the budget for 2000.
- A powerful teleconferencing system will be set up, to which ministries have full access. The system will be used for meetings with people in regional parts of Iceland, overseas embassies and government service partners in general.
- Experiments will be made with electronic voting (Ministry of Justice).
- An initiative will be launched regarding public access to terminals (simple touch screens and/or regular computers) in government agencies in consultation with them. This item needs to be taken into account in the drafting of budget proposals for (2001 and) 2002.
- Plans must be made for improved student and teacher access to the Internet. Likewise the possibility for improving students' computer facilities (laptops, work stations, ....) should be examined.
- The in-house document management system needs to be under constant development and review. Among other things, it must be ensured that the basic system is developed in such a way as to serve the needs of government administration, maximize coordination between ministries, minimize costs by increasing cooperation on "custom solutions" and generally adhere closely to contracts. The existence of working procedures at ministries, and compliance with them, needs to be enforced. It is proposed to establish one full-time position within the government administration to handle development, coordination, contracts, training and user help.
- The document management system will be taken into service in all Icelandic embassies (and permanent committees) overseas.
- The cost of using the Internet for the public and businesses is one of the greatest potential obstacles for the development of e-commerce and e-government. Low telecommunication cost is therefore a precondition for enabling the public sector to transfer the bulk of various services entirely to the Internet. It is vital to seek ways to minimize all costs connected with e-commerce, not least telecommunication costs.
- A concise (electronic) information brochure shall be produced for government agencies, ministries and businesses in Iceland, explaining the legal side of electronic documents, e-mail and copyright. This could contain a discussion of the protection of the individual and other issues concerning increasing computer and Internet use by employees.
Particular attention is drawn to the need to strengthen the permanent committees within the government administration which are engaged on major development projects such as the government website and document management system, by designating an employee to work with/for them. Progress is simply too slow under the present arrangement and this would make it much more systematic and rapid. Government administration needs to adapt continuously to new working methods. It is important to involve interested parties outside the government in the committee's work where appropriate. It is proposed to appoint the following committees:
- A committee on pricing of public information.
- A committee/working group on e-mail and Internet use, to address:
b. Private use of e-mail and the Web by civil servants at work, along with proposals for the best way of handling these issues (e.g. junk mail, spamming, private e-mail addresses?, filtering of specific websites?). It is aimed to publish some kind of guidelines for the government administration.
III. Incentives – communication of knowhow and experience
General knowledge about e-commerce is inadequate among public sector employees, technologists and the general public. Confidence in this form of business needs to be built up and technologists and management trained to be able to ensure that information systems and their application will fulfil to such expectations.
- Open meetings and conferences will be held. The administration will seek cooperation with the business community, among others, concerning such conferences which will present information about developments in e-commerce and e-government. Measures by public sector bodies will be highlighted, such as commitments in international agreements, drafting of legislation and the work of public committees. It is important for such meetings to express the needs of the business community and public, and to seek views and proposals from as many sources as possible concerning the development of these issues.
- Promotional material written in plain language will be sent to the media and interested parties when new steps are taken in the decision-making process or individual projects reach the implementation stage. The public and businesses need to be urged to play an active part in the development and use of e-commerce.
- A special web page will be set up devoted to e-commerce and e-government. This will contain links to domestic and foreign reports, memos, news releases and other useful material for anyone who wants to keep abreast of developments. Users will be encouraged to submit material/links which may be added to the page. This task may be handled jointly the Information Society Taskforce and its partner groups, and the web page design and maintenance could be assigned to a private sector company.
- The Information Society Taskforce and its partner groups should focus especially on these issues over the period 2000-2002.
- A broad supply of training courses should be made available on various aspects of e-commerce, including basic training, technical issues e.g. electronic signatures, and legal aspects. Private educational establishments will be encouraged to arrange such courses which will benefit private companies no less than public sector ones. Coverage of e-commerce in the general school system will be encouraged where appropriate.
IV. E-commerce –review of legislation
1. Electronic signatures
EU directive on electronic signatures
A proposal for a directive on electronic signatures was put forward by the EU Commission on May 13, 1998. The proposal aims to lay down minimum rules for security and responsibility, and to ensure that electronic signatures are legally recognized in community countries on the basis of the rule concerning free flow of services and the principle of home country control. It is intended to create a framework for secure trading on the Internet within the inner market, thereby stimulating investment in companies connected with e-commerce.
The proposal has been approved and has become a directive. Since it is covered by the EEA Agreement, Iceland is obliged to incorporate it into Icelandic law.
A committee is at work at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to prepare for incorporating the directive into Icelandic law. It is aimed to harmonise legislation in this area as closely as possible within the Nordic countries.
A new bill on electronic signatures is expected to be drafted by May 2000. It would be desirable for the bill to become law as soon as possible.
Committees
- Security – Accreditation. A committee needs to be appointed at some time in 2000 to examine, clarify and/or make proposals on accreditation of electronic signatures for public sector bodies, security of personal information, encryption requirements, reliability and the building of confidence in e-commerce. It will need to examine whether there are grounds for public sector bodies to issue a kind of "citizens card", and what the role of Statistics Iceland and other public sector bodies will be in verifying the identity of the individual. Do public sector bodies need to set up accreditation activities or will this be handled privately (for the public sector too). Given the committee's large and complex task, it can be assumed that working groups will need to be set up to handle specific issues, and technical experts called in to work on specific tasks. This committee will need to represent industry, at least, as well as the Ministry of Finance, Statistics Iceland and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
- Standards. A new working group or the Standards Council needs to examine international standards for electronic signatures and e-commerce in general. It must examine the need for producing Icelandic versions of international standards or formally adopting them as Icelandic standards.
EU framework directive on e-commerce
On November 18, 1998 the EU Commission, as directed by the European Parliament and the Council, issued a directive on e-commerce in the inner market (EEA). It is not timely to incorporate the draft directive into Icelandic law until it has entered into effect within the EU. As a rule some time elapses between legislation entering into effect in the EU and its passing through the EEA process. There is nothing to prevent Iceland from incorporating the directive before the EEA process is completed. In spite of some uncertainty about technical points, the main principles of the directive on e-commerce must be regarded as known. The following points need to be implemented after the joint position of the Council and the European Parliament is known:
Clauses in law need to be set along with the material rules of the directive
a. A clause on the duty of Internet service providers to supply information to the government and users.
b. A clause on the duty of Internet service providers to supply information in their marketing activities.
c. A clause stating that the service of providers engaged in accredited activities shall fulfil the same requirements irrespective of whether the service is provided on the Internet or by conventional marketing.
f. A clause on the genesis of agreements on the Internet (see, however, clauses in the Contract Act no. 7/1936 with later amendments).
g. A clause exonerating intermediaries from responsibility in Internet transactions.
h. A clause stating that general monitoring duties may not be imposed on service providers.
i. A clause on Internet arbitration.
j. A clause authorizing cooperation with foreign government agencies regarding Internet monitoring.
Clauses in law which conflict with the aims of the directive need to be rescinded.
A committee/working group needs to be appointed with the aim of identifying legal provisions which may conflict with the directive, e.g. by making unnecessary requirements for legal formalities which hinder electronic commerce.
A code of Internet ethics needs to be set, based on an international context.
A committee/working group needs to be appointed to draw up a code of ethics which applies on the Internet. This code will have an international reference since it will take into account the codes which have already been formulated. When the code has been drawn up, a tribunal will presumably need to be appointed.
This committee will need to examine whether a separate code of ethics should be set for Internet use by public sector employees and educational institutions and/or filters installed to prevent employees from viewing specific types of pages, etc. (N.B. cooperation with the committee on e-mail and Web use).
An Internet commerce tribunal would need to be set up
A committee needs to be appointed to draw up satisfactory rules on the resolution of disputes on account of minor claims in Internet trading. These provisions may conceivably be incorporated into the legislation, cf. item 1. When the rules have been drawn up, an arbitration tribunal will presumably need to be appointed.
V. Protection of individuals
In the beginning of 2000 a bill on protection of individuals and handling of personal data was presented to Parliament. It is important to create a clear legal framework for protection of personal data which takes into account the rapid development now taking place and foreseeable increase in cases/questions which arise with the expansion of e-commerce and e-government. The bill addresses many necessary issues involving protection of personal data. It includes reforms to the appointment and brief of the Data Protection Commission, and proposes its replacement by an Agency for the Protection of Individuals (Supervisory authority). This bill will hopefully become law in 2000.
Vl. Conclusion
This project plan specifies the projects which obviously need to be undertaken in the next 2-3 years in order for Iceland to remain one of the leaders in IT use. The ever changing nature of information and telecom technology make long-term planning difficult. More new and unforeseen tasks concerning electronic commerce and electronic government can be expected to need addressing over the next 2-3 years.