Republic `among top contenders' for Internet business

Due to a number of key advantages, the Republic should consider itself one of the top contenders as an international centre for electronic commerce and digital enterprise, according to Mr Ira Magaziner, the most powerful man globally in determining Internet policy.

Making a keynote appearance at a top-level government symposium on electronic commerce and the Internet at Dublin Castle yesterday, Mr Magaziner said opportunities were "wide open for Ireland to move in and take a leadership role". He believes several attributes leave the Republic well placed as an e-commerce hub: the strength of its education system; the existence of so many technology companies; the young population; and the fact that the Republic is English-speaking.

"I can't emphasise enough how well Ireland is positioned," he said later at a press conference. "You couldn't pick an engine for growth that better suits Ireland."

Mr Magaziner, often referred to as the Internet czar, is US President Bill Clinton's senior policy adviser on trade. He plays a pivotal role in spearheading US, and as a consequence international, Internet policy. It is understood that his presence in Dublin may be read as an endorsement of the Republic's potential top role in the development of the global e-commerce market strongly advocated by the Clinton administration.

The conference, jointly hosted by the Department of Public Enterprise and the Information Society Commission, was geared to jump-start e-commerce development in this country. The full house of attendees, all there by invitation, was selected from the Republic's potential movers and shakers, the top tier of Government, semi-State, education and corporate management.

The present $6 billion (£4.3 billion) e-commerce market was expected to expand to $300 billion in the next three years, Mr Magaziner said. He noted that Internet traffic was continuing to double every 90 days, with 100,000 new Web addresses registered every week.

However, three main elements needed to be in place to advance the e-commerce industry in the Republic, he said: a flat rate for accessing the Internet, rather than per-minute phone charges; a proper telecommunications infrastructure; and education. Mr Magaziner said that the lack of flat rate access to the Internet was the greatest inhibitor of Europe's Internet growth. Those countries which switch first to flat rate would gain an enormous competitive advantage, he noted, because e-commerce businesses would relocate there.

Infrastructure - the development of a "broadband", high-speed network capable of handling the memory-hogging, multimedia Net content of the future - was also crucial. He said that, while free market competition could drive infrastructure development in the US, Government support would probably be necessary in a state the size of the Republic. "On the other hand, the rest of Europe is no further along than you are," he said.

And, he said, the top five issues were really "education, education, education, education and education". If schools fail to educate children in technology and encourage technology as a career, the Republic would face the same skills shortage crisis as the US. Mr Magaziner was adamant that privacy issues - how and why information was solicited or unknowingly obtained from Net users - should be resolved by industry self-regulation and not by government legislation. This puts the US at odds with the EU, which intends to bring in strict privacy controls in the autumn. Several recent reports in the US that demonstrated a cavalier approach to privacy online by Web businesses has made privacy a hot issue.

The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke (left), with Mr Ira Magaziner, senior adviser to US President, Mr Bill Clinton, on Internet policy and Ms Vivienne Jupp, chairwoman of the Information Society Commission at the symposium on electronic commerce in Dublin Castle yesterday. Photograph: Bryan O'Brien