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The Business Buzz About China
by William New
Tim Bennett, the board chairman of the technology industry group AeA, left last week's board meeting of the U.S. Information Technology Office (USITO) with one overriding thought: China "continues to be booming, and everybody continues to flock" there.
Bennett was among the 15 USITO board members who gathered in Beijing to discuss their priorities for the coming year. The group now will have to winnow the list of about 10 possible priorities, such as intellectual property rights, government procurement and China's commitments made at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Bennett emphasized the possibilities in China by recalling a meeting with an official from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation who is responsible for investment approval. He asked that official who China's competitors for investment are. "No one," the official replied, adding that the only competition now is between regions of China.
About 15 businesses and trade associations attended the USITO meeting, Bennett said. The group's six parent associations are AeA, the Computer Systems Policy Project, the Information Technology Industry Council, the Semiconductor Industry Association, the Software and Information Industry Association and the Telecommunications Industry Association.
In other trade news, Cambodia may join the WTO by the September trade ministerial in Mexico, the WTO announced Tuesday. Cambodia's bid to join the WTO entered a final phase after last week's meeting of the WTO accession working party, which includes the United States. Cambodia would be the first least-developed country to join the WTO since the body's creation in 1995. Bilateral meetings between the United States and Cambodia also will continue.
Women In The World Of E-Commerce
E-commerce opportunities for women in developing countries are rising, but they still face significant obstacles to taking advantage of them, according to a report released Monday by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Women need more education, better infrastructure and financial help to realize their e-commerce potential, according to the E-Commerce and Development 2002 report.
UNCTAD identified that a "digital glass ceiling" exists worldwide, as women comprise a disproportionate amount of the low-skilled end of the information technology workforce and are "largely absent" from the upper echelons. Even in the United States, where half of Internet users are women, they fill 85 percent of data-entry jobs and are a minority in the mid- to upper-level ranks of management. The disparity typically is higher in developing countries, the report said.
Self-employed women are increasingly using the Internet to earn income, UNCTAD said, and it provides advantages for small-business owners who are women. The best opportunities lie in business-to-business e-commerce because outsourcing to developing countries is a growing trend.
In Latin America, 38 percent of Internet users are women, the study said. That rate drops to 22 percent in Asia and 6 percent in the Middle East, UNCTAD said. Meanwhile skilled-labor shortfalls are increasing.
The report overall found that the number of Internet users worldwide is booming, with 30 percent growth expected for 2002. But Internet use rose only 10 percent in North America. It also estimated that trade in goods and services over the Internet could be as much as $2.3 billion in 2002, a 50 percent rise over last year, and the figure could reach nearly $4 billion next year.
U.S., Britain, Canada Lead E-Commerce Ranks
The consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton on Tuesday released a study that said the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada provide the most favorable environments for e-commerce.
The U.K. Office of the E-Envoy, a coalition of 30 senior executives from leading European tech companies, commissioned the study in an effort to develop a framework for measuring the e-commerce progress of the Group of Seven industrialized nations plus Australia and Sweden.
The United States was among the leaders in each of the four categories: the environment for e-commerce, the ability and readiness of people to adopt it, the actual use of e-commerce, and its impact. The study examined the roles of citizens, businesses and governments.
The United Kingdom and Canada also were leaders fostering an e-commerce environment, which includes education, investment, the price of Internet access, the regulatory environment and the infrastructure. Sweden and Canada led in the level of their citizens' "skill and will" to participate in e-commerce, their uptake of Internet technologies, and the degree to which citizens lives have been changed by the Internet.
Sweden joined the United States as a leader in business readiness and use of e-commerce, and change wrought by the Internet. Finally, Sweden, Canada and Australia were leaders in the government integration of e-commerce and use of it, and in Internet-triggered transformation.
U.S. E-Commerce Advisers Named
Seventeen industry representatives will serve on a U.S. e-commerce advisory body called the International Functional Advisory Committee On Electronic Commerce. Members of the panel typically have access to privileged information on international policymaking.
The members will include:
- Timothy Sheehan, director of global e-commerce policy at IBM, as primary vice chairman
- Linda Schmid, vice president and director of e-commerce at the Coalition of Service Industries, as secondary vice chairman
- Anne Marie Banner, a senior manager at Microsoft
- Susan Chapman, director of e-commerce policy at General Motors
- Tod Cohen, associate general counsel of global public policy at eBay
- Barbara Dooley, president of Barbara Dooley and Associates
- Daniel Driscoll, department manager for product support at Caterpillar
- Loretta Dunn, vice president of e-commerce at Boeing
- Kathryn Hauser, senior vice president at the Information Technology Industry Council
- David Leifer, counsel for the president's office at the American Council on Life Insurance
- Elissa Myers, president and CEO at the Electronic Retailing Association
- Wendy Owens, president and CEO at AbleMedia
- George Phillips, a consultant representing Union Carbide
- Joel Platt, vice president and general counsel at BGE
- Tai Terry, assistant general counsel at AOL Time Warner
- Glenn Zagoren, CEO at Zagoren-Zozzora
Britain's Blair Makes Broadband Commitment
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has committed to providing high-speed Internet access to every school, university, hospital and surgery by a doctor, BBC News reported. He stressed that access to the technology "must be universal."
Blair said that the future of the United Kingdom's industrial and societal success depends upon implementation of broadband technology.
At the same time as his remarks, British Telecom said it will make broadband available to some 90 percent of the U.K. population.
Global Business In Brief
Jean-Rene Fourtou, chairman and CEO of Vivendi Universal, was elected to serve two years as head of the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce, the group announced Tuesday. He will replace Richard McCormick on Jan. 1.
In other global business news, the Business Coalition for U.S.-Central America Trade has been formed, according to a Tuesday announcement. The United States has committed to negotiating a free-trade agreement with the Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. U.S. exports account for more than 40 percent of the region's imports and include goods and services such as computers and financial services.
On another note, Commerce Secretary Donald Evans will travel to Santiago, Chile, and Lima, Peru, in early December to try to get a footing for U.S. technology firms, Commerce Department officials said last week.
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