E-awareness

Dear Colleagues:

The continuum of becoming e-competent begins with awareness, progresses to knowledge and then culminates in acquiring e-skills.

All three are necessary, noted Dorothy Riddle, one of the Executive Forum participants, during a small group discussion on e-competence.

Below are two e-mails we received on moving from e-awareness to e-competence (business and government perspectives). These will be followed by Executive Forum reports on the sessions for "education and awareness" and "needs assessment and awareness".

Natalie Domeisen, ITC moderator

E-AWARENESS FOR BUSINESS

From Steve Rynecki, E-Commerce Specialist, Chemonics Intl., USA, srynecki@chemonics.net

I would appreciate comments on the best strategy for making e-commerce knowledge more accessible to small enterprise owners in developing countries and transitional economies. I recently returned from the Balkan region. I was impressed with the teledensity and line speeds there. But, we heard time and again the frustration of not being educated enough about tangible e-commerce strategies and tactics that would result in successful transactions and increaed knowledge on the entire subject.

In other words, how can e-commerce knowledge be effectively disseminated to business leaders in transitional economies, while also being cost effective? What tools are available to development agencies in promoting e-commerce education across the board in  order to narrow the digital divide of nations?

E-AWARENESS FOR GOVERNMENT

From Mr. Carruitero, Peru, mcarruitero@angelfire.com

First, I appreciate from all the comments I received during these e-discussions that national development in e-trade competence requires a big effort.

The main problem, I think, is to create a continuous process of development. It is not enough to acquire technology and implement it, so you can say you are now at the top (I got Internet, I got my web, e-commerce etc). It is more important to use technology as a springboard to generate new, efficient business based on e-commerce, increase services exports, etc.

This is where planning comes in. Where does a country want to be, and how does it want to develop? Efforts should then be made in this direction to meet the objectives. In Canada, for example, the Government has agreed with banks to guarantee loans to knowledge businesses (i.e. exporters of professional services).

In Peru, we have technology. What are the objectives to get development benefits from it? We need to walk toward development in a better position, and not just look at it.