Over the last decade, with the development of information technologies and their increasing use, the more developed countries have experienced a real contribution to economic growth in spite of the deceleration of the global economy.

There is an enormous digital gap between developed and developing countries. Large multinational corporations and many other smaller companies are always bigger than the companies of developing countries, regardless of their size. What is most important is that e-commerce is a reality that will be around for a long time to come and with every passing day, it plays a more important role in transactions in goods and services at the international level.

Business transactions referred to as B2B (business to business) are conducted under the more generalised mode of use, while the B2C (business to consumer) system facilitates to a lesser, though not negligible, Internet sales through bids for products, as in the widely known case of Ebay. There are examples such as the purchase of airline tickets and tourism packages that are being used more and more every day and in this way, the middleman is also eliminated and transactions can become more productive. There is no doubt that consumers with Internet access are being provided with growing opportunities to purchase a multitude of products and services. Some Governments also use virtual markets to tender for the purchase of goods and services . In short, the digital world has allowed advancements in the field of e-commerce, but regrettably, developing countries are at a disadvantage vis a vis developed countries.
The small and medium enterprises in our countries, especially the smaller ones, should participate more actively in international commerce via the Internet. There are still neither studies nor statistical data that can determine the size of the digital gap in this specific aspect of e-commerce. However, there are known cases other than those mentioned earlier in which the digital trading of goods and services has helped artisans, musicians and other artists in developing countries, to overcome barriers of distance and the knowledge of markets since they have gained access to the external world under both the business to client (B2C) and B2B systems. This shows that there is open space for the transactions of small and medium enterprises and being familiar with cases such as those mentioned above is sufficient to understand that the Internet can indeed be used as a channel for taking advantage of commercial opportunities.
Despite the foregoing, it should not be assumed that e-commerce is the panacea for developing the business of small and medium enterprises. We must not forget that companies also have to resolve their own problems such as weak infrastructure, the lack of knowledge in business management and the poor product and service quality , just to name a few. Companies must better themselves and place themselves in global markets that are highly competitive even though they are niches of specialised markets, which in the end, tend to be more suited to small and medium enterprises. In other words, there is enormous potential for all and e-commerce can play a part in bringing the market closer to companies through the marketing of goods and services.

It must be pointed out that governments have a direct responsibility to design and implement policies to help investors establish Internet services that would serve as a channel for increasing commercial transactions, especially for small and medium enterprises.

Mr. Luis Noriega is the Trade Director of the Association of Caribbean States. The views expressed are not necessarily the official views of the ACS. Feedback can be sent to mail@acs-aec.org

(end)

06 September, 2004