06-04-00

DAY THREE: E-COMMERCE SET TO LIBERALISE TRADE

E-commerce may be the force which finally creates properly liberalised and tariff-free world trade, members of the global think-tank Boosting the Net Economy 2000 heard on the third day of their online debate.

Professor Jan Haaland of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration said that while there have been significant moves in recent years towards reductions in regional and global trade barriers, markets are still fairly segmented, even within a closely integrated region like Europe.

"Firms have been able to use their market power to segment markets and price-discriminate between sub-markets, but e-commerce will change this dramatically. If consumers can shop around, and compare prices across companies and across borders, then the basis for market segmentation and price discrimination will disappear.

"Hence, e-commerce may turn out to be as important for market integration in Europe as any of the liberalisation attempts we have seen."

Clive Holtham of City University Business School in the UK said many of our larger hierarchical corporations would also have to undergo a form of liberalisation, or 'implode'.

"The large corporation as a hierarchy is not sustainable in some markets. It is ideally suited to the mass production standardised products, and will continue in some markets, but as we move to products driven by information and knowledge, then individual employees will become much more aware of their real value and will want to see a direct link between their personal inputs and any increase in value achieved as a result. Many traditional organisations will implode as employees seek to become contractors with profit shares and equity stakes."

One model which may emerge could be that of the film industry, he said. "Films have a producer responsible for overall resourcing, but the actual teams form for each picture. All the participants are self-employed and get formal individual credit (see the increasingly lengthy lists at the end of every film). Your reputation is enhanced by working on the best teams."

Equality issues were also to the fore. Marion Scott of Women Connect said women faced various kinds of disadvantages compared with men in participating in the information society, but policymakers tended to ignore a gender perspective, focusing instead on sub-groups of women like lone parents or carers.

"We know that women make up the largest proportion of the poor of the world. We know that the numbers in computing related professions has dropped in the UK and there are issues about women's progression with ICT skills and their access. It seems as if women are underrepresented or may contribute less in debates such as these. These are some of the reasons why we need a gender perspective.

One important strategy will to strengthen women's voluntary and community organisations, many of whom weer already pioneering the use of communication technologies and networks, she said. "Their role is critical and proven to address a wide range of women's unmet needs".

Dany Vandromme, Director of the French National Research and Education Network (RENATER), said governments were currently relying too heavily on the power of markets to boost public access and services online.

"Market power will not make a true and efficient on-line public service. Let's consider the education system. Recent years has seen a real competition between politicians to announce: we have X% of schools connected to the Internet.

"What is the reality behind that? Most of the time, there are, in a school, a (very) few PCs connected to the outside world, with an extremely small bandwidth capacity, teachers and professors are generally not trained to teach (or even show) IT to young people, and the pedagogical material suffers from an extreme scarcity and dispersion. Drastic effort is needed on the training of teachers.

Furthermore problems of widespread access in society will not be solved by waiting for the telecom market to lower the prices, he said.

"These sectors require public funding, not only to buy telecom services, but also to force telecom operators to tailor their offers to the needs of public services."

Mirta Galesic of the Institute for Consumer and Social Research in Croatia, said that in Croatia, as in other developing countries, the main reason for not using the Internet is cost. The cost of a computer alone is around five times the average monthly wage. Only around 5.6% of the Croatian population is online, and those are mainly younger, better-educated, wealthier city-dwellers.

"Efforts should be taken to ensure that the Internet is freely available in every school and public library of even the smaller settlements. But many Croatian people, including decision-makers, still can't see the potential of the Internet. In everyday struggles for essential things, like food and housing, many people just have no time to look around and notice the rise of the new virtual world around them."

Dafne Plou, Chairperson of the Latin American and Caribbean News Agency, said that in countries where corruption is high, the use of new technologies can be of great benefit to keep citizens informed about governments use of public funds. "The new government in Argentina has promised to report in this way. Now it will also have to work hard to secure universal access."

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05/04/00
DAY TWO REPORT