Industry Minister John Manley and over 100 Canadian
business leaders reached a “broad consensus” on a national strategy for
electronic commerce following a one-day summit in Ottawa.
The summit was hosted by Industry Canada and the Information Technology
Association of Canada (ITAC) and sponsored by the Electronic Commerce
Council of Canada, the Canadian Council for International Business, Canadian
Bankers Association, Bell, Stentor, EDS, and AT&T Canada.
“Summit participants made tremendous progress towards developing a
partnership approach to make Canada a center of excellence for electronic
commerce,” said incoming ITAC chair Carol Stephenson. “For our part in
private industry, we recognize it’s up to us to make sure our applications
build public trust in doing business electronically. We have to continue
to invest, innovate, and take some risks.”
Participants in the Summit discussed a number of fundamental questions
including: consumer confidence and trust in digital transactions, the impact
of current commerce and legal frameworks, access to the Information Highway,
and international cooperation.
Additional materials on electronic commerce including fact sheets, speeches,
and contact information can be found on the
Industry Canada and Information Technology
Association of Canada Web sites.
The Summit was a lead up to the OECD Ministerial Conference on Electronic
Commerce to be held in Ottawa on October 7-9, 1998.
