The Global Information Infrastructure Commission ended a two-day meeting Tuesday in Tokyo with a joint statement calling for more concerted actions by business and governments to expand electronic commerce and telecommunications infrastructure development.Participating members from the forum, which comprises world business leaders from the information and communication industries, include Minoru Makihara, chairman of Mitsubishi Corp.; Taizo Nishimuro, president and CEO of Toshiba; Polly Summer, senior vice president of Oracle Corp.; and Volker Jung, executive vice president of Siemens AG.The forum pointed to six areas where government and private-sector roles should be particularly clarified in electronic commerce -- consumer protection, taxation and tariffs, privacy, intellectual property rights, authentication and the impact of electronic commerce on society.Asia Co-Chair Michio Naruto, vice chairman of Fujitsu, told a closing press conference that through the session, he came to realize more keenly the importance of electronic commerce in the global economy. "Speculation money is now coming and going around (in the world market). That's also partly thanks to one aspect of (the development of) technologies" he said, referring to the development of electronic transactions that made it possible to transfer vast amounts of money around the world in mere moments.GIIC managing director Bowman Cutter said gaps between "haves" and "have-nots" of information literacy are widening, calling it a "greater challenge" for developing countries.
