|
|
Page Last Updated August 17, 2003
|
THE G7 PILOT PROJECT |
Introduction
The G7 members launched at the G7 Ministerial Conference on the Information Society, held in Brussels in February 1995, the G7 Pilot Project "A Global Marketplace for SMEs." It's overall objective is to "facilitate increased competitiveness and participation in global trade for SMEs by exploiting the opportunities of the global information society." The European Commission, Japan and the USA were nominated as co-ordinators. A preparatory phase defined the terms of reference for this project. Two large scale consultations of industry were initiated to support the objectives and at the end of 1995 the "Objectives And Framework For Action" were adopted.
The International Co-ordination of
the G8 Pilot Project:
The Policy Group
In April 1998, it was decided that all former G7 Pilots are now called
G8 with the joining of Russian.The G8 activities are co-oridnated at international
level and overseen by a "Policy Group" comprising representatives
of each of the G8 countries and the European Commission, the latter providing
the secretariat for the project.
 |
Project Description
The main lines of action of the pilot project are organised around three themes A global information network For SMEs, the business requirements of SMEs and the international testbed for pilot projects.
Theme 1: A Global Information Network For SMEs
This is providing an open environment for SMEs to access and disseminate information for business using international information networks. Japan is the co-ordinator of this theme and is responsible for the setting up and maintenance of the "Global Information Network For SMEs Home Page" which provides an entry point to the theme. Each participating country provides its own home page and links are created between each of them. Many countries now have pages that are linked to Japanese site, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, The United Kingdom, The United States, the European Union and Korea. Internal organisations also contribute, including the IBCC-Net (Chambers of Commerce) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
|
Theme 2: SMEs Business Requirements - Legal, Institutional & Technical
This addresses the requirements of SMEs for the development and uptake of electronic commerce and span a broad range of topics, identified as follows:
Globalisation issues such as identification, multi-lingalism and multi-culturalism
Finance issues such as billing, payment and taxation
Ownership, including intellectual property rights, (copyright), and industrial property rights (trademarks)
Privacy and security, including confidentiality, authentication and legal restrictions
Interconnectivity and interoperability
Deployment, including promotion, awareness, best practices and training
The European Commission is co-ordinating this. To achieve results a co-ordination and co-operation structure has been organised along the three themes for action. These are addressed through a flexible structure of working groups which were set up following consultation with industry in 1995 and a launch workshop in 1996. Participation in these working groups is open to industry and participation by SMEs has been strongly encouraged. Japan has also set up similar working groups to address barriers to electronic commerce.
|
Theme 3:International Testbeds For Electronic Commerce
The testbeds aim at establishing practical electronic commerce systems within specific industry sectors. The projects include research and technological development, demonstration and deployment activities and focus on combining existing technologies and solutions to yield a practical system. The testbeds address the businesses and users in Theme 2, validating proposed solutions and providing further feedback on business requirements and the barriers to the uptake of electronic commerce. They also play a major role as "showcases" and contribute to promote awareness.
The United States is co-ordinating this theme. Criteria for the selection of testbeds have been agreed and a procedure set up to submit the proposed testbeds to the USA. About 55 projects have declared their interest to qualify as testbeds and are proceeding to register.
It has also been decided to extent on an international scale a number of the testbeds and pilot projects to demonstrate the opportunities and advantages of electronic commerce worldwide.
|
http://nii.nist.gov/g7/10 global mp/testbeds/sme testbeds.html |
What Is Electronic Commerce?
Electronic Commerce is a general concept covering any form of business interaction executed using information and communications technology. This covers interaction between companies, between companies and their customers, or between companies and public administrations.
Electronic Commerce includes electronic trading of goods, services both material and non-material, it also includes the advertising and promotion of products and services, the facilitation of contacts between traders, the provision of market intelligence, pre- and post-sales support, and electronic procurement and support for shared business processes.
The electronic trading of physical goods and services represents an evolution of the present ways of trading, capitalising on new possibilities offered by technology. The fact that many of these goods and services can be delivered in digital form, represents a revolutionary new way of trading. In this new environment the full commercial transaction cycle can be conducted immediately via a single network, such as Internet. This development implies specific requirements regarding the integration of payment, and control of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) such as copyright, etc.
Depending on how the marketplace reacts, traded "electronic goods" could create totally new markets and revolutionise some industries (such as publishing).
Electronic Commerce aims at improving efficiency in terms of lower costs, improving effectiveness in terms of widening market potential and better meeting customers’ needs and enhancing product and service innovation, notably through customer-supplier interactivity.
The full deployment of Electronic Commerce depends on a clear regulatory environment, fast data networks, technology such as electronic payment systems and, above all, on user awareness and the existence of clear business cases.
This latter point is the precondition that could unleash the significant private investments that are necessary to develop a critical mass of services and applications.
The development of new services and the operational changes implied by electronic commerce require extensive use of IT tools: from sophisticated network systems and computers or often "Information appliances" to multimedia applications.
The process of going "on-line" with key business processes, from sales to production control requires mastering of the possibilities offered by information systems. Multimedia development tools, data base access, email, electronic documents become all part of the daily activities and key elements of the operations in even the smallest company that wants to benefit from electronic business.
Once users are familiar with the possibilities offered by the information technology and they have understood the business advantage, electronic commerce will be able to have a significant pick up.
Contact Points
Europe, Middle East, Africa, Former Soviet Union:
European Commssion
DGIII/F/6
Mrs Rosalie Zobel
Office N105 5/25
Rue de la Loi 200
B-1049 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32 (02)
296 81 68
Fax: +32 (02) 296 83 87
Email: rosalie.zobel@dg3.cec.be
Asia and Australasia:
Mr. Yoshitaka TOUI
Director, Office of IT & Information Society
Ministry of International Trade and Industries
Japan
Kasumingaseki
1-3-1
Chiyoda - Ku, Tokyo 100-190
Tel +81 3 3501 2964
Fax +81 3 3580 6403
Email: tyab1932@miti.go.jp
Americas:
Ms. Judi Moline
National Computer Systems Lab
National Institut of standards
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899-0001
USA
Tel +1 301 975 4601
Fax +1 301 948 7242
E-mail: jmoline@NIST.GOV