Most of the discussion on the third day took place in working groups on potential best-practice checklists related to e-commerce. However, there were a number of general comments during the presentations.

Bernard Ancel, Chief, Trade Information Service, Division of Product and Market Development, ITC: "Many people using the Internet expect to see a price advantage: a product needs to be slightly or substantially cheaper. But there are many other factors than price in determining whether people come to your site or place an order. The results are therefore extremely unpredictable."

Dorothy Riddle, CMC, Service-Growth Consultants, Vancouver, Canada: "What e-business is all about is new relationships based on transparency and integration. E-business is about changing the relationship between customers, partners (suppliers) and staff."

Daniel Mpolokoso, Managing Director, Zamnet Communications Systems, Lusaka, Zambia: "Normally e-commerce leads to a reduction of the taxation base. Governments today tend to put too much emphasis on revenue rather than encouraging expansion of trade. At the end of the day, e-commerce will in fact expand the revenue base for them."

José Soriano, President, Red Cientifica Peruana/CEO, Internet Peru and Infoductos y Telecomunicaciones del Peru: "We must have regional connections. Otherwise we will make the same mistake as with the telephone -- everything will have to pass through New York or Europe. The second best-practice to be encouraged must be a national forum where government, industry, e-companies, universities, NGOs and all organizations of civil society meet regularly to decide how they are going to build their Internet society. It is a mistake that some governments make to regulate technology rather than allowing new technology to be encouraged. We also need to have an independent, autonomous supervisory organization for telecoms. Is that enough? No. It must have enough power to control telecom multinationals. Governments are also mistaken when they try to tax the Internet. They already have all the powers they need to raise revenues through existing taxation. They don't need to impose another tax."