Sri Lankan government introduces legislation further enabling cross border e-commerce trading
Parliament has approved the Electronic Transactions Amendment Bill presented by Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando. The move has reportedly been viewed as a major boost for commerce, business and trade in the digital era.
The Digital Infrastructure Ministry had led the move with the ICTA to prepare this latest amendment.
“The new amendment harmonises the Sri Lankan electronic transactions legislation fully in line with the UN Electronic Communication Convention (UNECC), the international standard for e-commerce legislation. Sri Lanka became the first country in South Asia and the second country in Asia (after Singapore) to adopt UN ECC,” ICTA Director/Legal Advisor Jayantha Fernando has been quoted telling the media.
Sri Lanka has ratified UNECC in July 2015 and ICTA took the lead initiative in close collaboration with UNCITRAL and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to reports, besides Singapore, countries in Asia-Pacific such as China, Australia, Thailand and Vietnam are already preparing domestic legislation to ratify the UNECC, while the Republic of Korea and the Philippines are signatories to the UNECC.
The newly-approved amendment is expected to improve Sri Lanka’s ability to trade with these countries using digital platforms.
In addition to enhancing the methods of doing trade, commerce and business, the new piece of legislation is to also help improve procedures and promote efficiency and transparency in service delivery by the Government and courts in Sri Lanka.
Reports published after the passage of the piece of legislation noted that the amendment will ensure greater legal certainty for e-commerce and e-Business providers who wish to use Sri Lankan law as the applicable law and ensure international validity for electronic contracts.
This will create greater trading opportunities for Sri Lankan SME’s with state parties to the UNECC.
In addition, it will also bring clarity and predictability to the legal value of the use of electronic communications in cross-border trade with other contracting states.
OSL take:
The passage of the Electronic Transactions Amendment Bill has further enabled Sri Lanka to engage in cross border transactions. It will improve Sri Lanka’s ability to trade with these countries using digital platforms. Hence, businesses in Sri Lanka as well as any new entrants to the country’s economy would be benefited when carrying out business work with other countries.
Article Code : | VBS/AT/19102017/Z_3 |