Local benefits of electronic commerce

by Anna Maria Bartolo

The local benefits and applications of electronic commerce will be discussed during this year's annual engineering conference organised by the Chamber of Professional Engineers.

Conference chairman Alexander Tranter said: "This is the first time we are opening our annual conference to entrepreneurs. The main aim of this conference will be to provide participants with a better under-standing of how the world wide web is reinventing the way people do business."

The full day conference also aims to show participants how the web is "empowering consumers by giving them increased choice, better value and a hopefully more satisfying and entertaining experience," according to Mr Tranter.

He was speaking yesterday during the launch of the ninth edition of the annual engineering conference to be held on 27 April at the Malta Hilton in St Julian's.

A good deal of emphasis will be made on business applications as well as the more technological aspect involved. Mr Tranter remarked that "this conference is being held at the right time" in view of the pending liberalisation of the local telecommunications sector.

"We believe in the liberalisation of telecommunications because it will create benefits for consumers and help keep standards and give efficient

service," he said.

He said telecommunications is a delicate sector because of the Maltacom monopoly but the liberalisation process is necessary so that everyone will compete on a level playing field without the threat of discrimination for other sectors

He referred to the most recent conferences on the subject of e-commerce, mainly the one organised by ECMS in October and that of KPMG last February where the international dimension was emphasised through foreign speakers and participants.

"This time we are focusing on the local dimension to see what people in Malta can do with this technology which will definitely revolutionise the whole industry," he said.

If Malta is to join the European Union, Maltese people will have to be more competitive and therefore gain an awareness and understanding of how to apply e-commerce to each of their individual sectors, he remarked.

The chamber's annual conference usually attracts between 120 and 150 people but more than 200 individuals are expected to attend this year's event since the doors have been opened to a wide spectrum of participants.

Communications Minister Censu Galea will officially open the conference which will be divided into three sessions, two in the morning and one in the afternoon.

The morning session entitled 'Setting the scene' will focus on e-commerce and how it is currently developing, the government's on line approach to delivering its services as well as the information technology framework being designed to support the flourishing of e-commerce.

The second morning session, 'Enabling the technology' will present the views of the three main telecommunications providers in Malta, mainly Vodafone Malta plc, Melita Cable plc and Datastream, regarding the further deployment of Internet related services.

'Applying the technology' will examine the way local companies are adopting the technology to improve their operational efficiency and competitiveness.

This afternoon session will feature speeches by speakers from local private companies Computime Ltd and Intercomp Ltd, as well as the Water Services Corporation. The speakers will present their individual case studies on how their companies are successfully implementing e-services.

By organising this conference, the chamber is showing its efforts to be at the forefront of the development of electronic technology locally which is often "powered by engineers", he said.

The chamber has more than 600 members and continually organises a number of courses for engineers and technicians.

An arrangement has been made with the Engineering Department for the sponsorship of 20 university students to attend the conference.

The price for the conference is Lm35 for non members, Lm25 for members and Lm12.50 for university students.

The conference can be accessed by Internet via the following address: www.maltanet.net/cpe

The event is sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Intercomp, Vodafone, Computime and Melita Cable.