Concerning the Belarusian case, its e-commerce strategy is still to be developed and adopted. As a co-founding member of the Belarusian public association "Information Society" and a consultant for SMEs, I've never heard about any industry-specific portals sites nor subsidized access to the Internet (I don't consider seriously some portals installed for Soros, USAID and other donors' money which are used mostly for educative purposes).

To my memory there is not even any well-pronounced state strategy towards e-commerce, and this is precisely what the Information Society Association is pushing Belarusian authorities to adopt. The development of this phenomenon in Belarus is rather chaotic and unbalanced. It also seems that big companies are the leader in information technology implementations.

Moreover, credit facilities for Belarusian SMEs hardly exists, and cheap and reliable Internet access remain the goal for most of society. Therefore, the development of e-commerce in Belarus is a matter of a few enthusiasts, businesses and NGOs who proposed an "Information Society". This Belarusian association is one of the biggest think tanks in the country comprised of more than 400 active members. They represent Belarus' elite: research institutions and universities, the Academy of Science, state bodies, the army, private companies, media, and highly qualified who are interested in making Belarus a merited member of the world information society community.

In 1995, the "cabina publica Internet" was created by Red Cientifica Peruana (RCP) in Peru to allow greater public access to the information and knowledge existing on the Internet. Today, five years later, Peru has more than 1,000 of these telecenters distributed all over Peru, in big cities and in semi-rural places.

Edwin San Roman, one of the directors of E-connexions, witness this growth from its beginning. He says that the people in Peru are becoming more aware that all they need is the equivalent of one dollar to access the Internet.

The user in Peru does not need to have a telephone or a computer, and, more importantly, does not even need to know how to use a computer because these 'telecenters' have become mini-training centers where the people learn enough to get on-line.

An operator-manager teaches the 'first-time-user' the basics and can assist the people with other programs, all for the cost of one dollar per hour. If the user wants unlimited access 24-hours a day , a monthly card is available at $25 USD.

This easy access to the Internet allowed Tortas Peru (www.tortasperu.com) a chance to start their e-business also with the help of the merchant account provided by e-connexions www.e-connexions.net.

Ceated by Edwin and his wife Maria del Carmen, Tortas Peru is an example of what can be accomplished with these new information technology tools.

Tortas Peru is based on the concepts of housewives baking cakes and delivering them from orders received by expatriates who want to surprise their loved ones on special occasions. The customer will pace the order via Internet, pay by credit card (or money order). As soon as the payment is approved, the order goes to the housewife baker. This business is allowing many women to stay at home and still earn a living.

According to Mrs. del Carmen, the first step was to train the women on how to use the Internet. Most of them had never touched a computer, yet, after a three hour period they learned how to access their mail boxes, send and receive their mail. The second step was to train them to make the cakes with the same recipes, care and quality to assure uniformity. The enthusiastic women are sharing many recipes among themselves, via e-mail.

Using E-connexion's capability to conduct virtual conferences, host web pages, provide e-mail access, broker credit card payment for exporters whose target is the USA market and consulting services on e-commerce for Latin American SMEs, E connexions has many other ideas on creating jobs utilizing the "cabinas publicas". Infrastructure of this kind, plus imagination, makes it possible for developing countries to enter into the e-economy.