What is e-commerce?
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, is the
buying and selling of product or service over electronic systems such as the
Internet and other computer networks. Electronic commerce draws on such
technologies as electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet
marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI),
inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.
For the consumer, e-commerce manes greater access to products,
the ability to compare prices between products and services and save money on
the cost of physically visiting the place of business.
The topic of e-commerce and its impact on countries such as
Namibia have been researched since the late 1990s and found that the greatest
impact on whether a country (and its entrepreneurs and consumers) will benefit
is largely dependent on the attitude of government and its legislature. In
short the following are identified as the government policies which have a
detrimental effect on the creation of e-commerce Namibia. They include:
• The
insistence of government to hold onto and protect the state owned telephone
network and in actual fact not allowing competition as all three cellular
providers are actually owned by one government owned Mother Company (Namibia
Post and Telecom Holdings). This results in inferior and high communications
costs making e-commerce activities unnecessarily costly and uncompetitive.
• The lack of
government strategy or support to develop world class enterprises. A poor
business, even if connected to the web and e-commerce enabled, will not succeed
in a competitive world. Companies in Namibia are generally ignorant of
international opportunities, the needs of those markets and how to service them
properly. To a large extent the
Investment Centre and other government institutions focus on FDI (foreign
direct investment) and not in assisting local enterprises expand to
international markets.
• The
governments should be doing more to help enterprises identify international
opportunities and take advantage of them.
• Government
insistence in maintaining ownership and management of logistics networks such
as ports and airports resulting in inefficient, costly and unreliable services,
which are incompatible with an e-commerce environment.
• Bureaucratic
export and import procedures result in lengthy customs clearance times which
nullify the benefits of speed in transactions offered by e-commerce. This
affects service levels and increases the cost of business operations.
• Restrictions
on imports and exports such as permits and licences, and the time taken to
obtain these permits, place barriers in the way of fast efficient e-commerce
activities.
• Namibia has
exchange controls that provide a barrier for transacting in a foreign currency
on the Internet.
• Lack of an
e-commerce friendly legal framework to provide recourse for companies. Current
laws do not accommodate electronic contracts and signatures. Our country does
not have legislation that deals with e-commerce concerns including
enforceability of the validity of electronic contracts, digital signatures.
• Lack of
progress in setting government institutions to accept declarations
electronically. This forces e-commerce enabled companies to produce paper and
undermines the concept of paperless trading.
To have e-commerce, a country needs rich computer
infrastructure, a functioning telecommunications network, and cheap access to
the Internet. Its citizens need to be reasonably computer literate, possess
both a consumerist mentality and a modicum of trust between the players in the
economy - and hold credit cards.
E-Government is needed as well
For the consumer, e-commerce should also extend to
government services as well. This is known as e-government and the Office of
the Prime Minister has been responsible for establishing this as an integrated
ministerial function at all levels, especially to our rural citizens.
The type of services should include:
·
Receiving notifications of the readiness of documents
such as birth certificates, passports etc. through SMS or email
·
Payment allowed through electronic financial
transactions (EFT) – including payments in regional and local level such as
school fees, water and electricity accounts
If Namibia is to achieve goals
such as Vision 2030, we must ensure consumers are part of this project and are
the beneficiaries of political, economic, social and technological advances in
the modern world.
