Minister of Energy, Mining, and Telecommunications, Clive Mullings. - File

Jamaica's commerce and technology ministry will lead a public education campaign on the Electronics Transaction Act, a new law that is meant to provide legal safeguards for parties transacting business via the Internet.

The campaign kicks off in November, new energy, mining and Telecommunications Minister Clive Mullings said Monday night.

The new law offers a secure environment for the conduct of business and is meant to be the basis on which the country begins to build a secure platform for e-commerce. The education campaign is to apprise businesses and consumers of their rights and protections as well as responsibilities, under the law.

Mullings, addressing delegates and technology ministers at the fifth annual Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) forum now on at the Ritz-Carlton Rose Hall in Montego Bay, said the fora would be held in several regions until December.

Some 34 countries are represented at the CTO forum, whose deliberations this year centre on measures to harness the potential of Next Generation Networks to facilitate ICT convergence.

Mullings, in the meantime, says Jamaica, which developed its NGN policy in May 2006, sees great potential in areas like video on demand.

"As the premier CARICOM nation to establish a comprehensive telecommu-nications legislation addressing such issues as interconnection, spectrum manage-ment, numbering, competitive safeguards, universal service and consumer protection, and with the many developments taking place in the Commonwealth, I believe there are so many opportunities for us as far as the offerings of next generation networks," he said.

"These can be integrated with multiple on-demand entertainment services and video over any IP transport network. The implication, therefore, is television availability, wherever there is connectivity. Countries with rich culture and heritage must begin to develop content for these media," he added.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com