Today E-Commerce transactions are estimated to be worth $22bn per annum. But by 2002, the value of these transactions is expected to have risen to $350bn per annum. Business to Business E-Commerce is expected to mirror the physical world where business transactions are much greater than consumer sales. Current estimates suggest that 80% of E-Commerce is Business to Business and 20% is Business to Consumer.

The magnitude of economic opportunities afforded by the advances in telecommunications technologies has pushed Information Society and E-Commerce issues to the forefront of the Governments agenda and I am determined that Irish business will be well positioned to reap the rewards from these developments.

This Government is taking a pro-active and integrated approach to meeting the challenges presented by the new technologies. These can be summarised under the following broad headings: - Infrastructure - Education, Awareness & Skills - Regulation and Legal Issues

This, together with the increased competition in the newly liberalised telecommunications sector is expected to deliver the necessary competitive low cost telecommunications charges to Irish business.

In response to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, the Government has allocated a total of IR£365m to various educational initiatives designed to develop appropriate skills and promote innovation. These initiatives are : - An additional 5,400 new third level college places in high technology courses over the next 4 years at a cost of £75m. - The Technology Investment Fund is making £250m available over a 3 year period to renew and modernise third level institutions infrastructure. - Under the schools IT initiative the Government is investing £40m to facilitate the integration of ICT (Information Communication Technology) into Irish schools, including the provision of hardware and support services in schools and skills development for teachers.

Awareness raising events are being held all around the country involving co-operation between various Government Departments, Agencies, the Information Society Commission, IBEC and the Chambers of Commerce.

It is necessary to build up a critical mass of ICT users in order to develop trust and confidence in E-Commerce for business and the population as a whole.

We are tackling this issue on three broad fronts: - The promotion of Ireland as an attractive location for E-Commerce and related industries. - The development of an indigenous base of key players in the provision of software, services and hardware for E-Commerce. - A focused strategy aimed at building awareness, increasing adaptation and fuelling more effective use of ICT's, with particular importance being attached to the SME sector.

A national SME E-Commerce initiative is being developed by Enterprise Ireland The objectives of this project are: - To assist up to 1000 Irish SME's to take specific action in relation to their own companies and to provide them with practical knowledge of E-Commerce use and applications. - To provide companies with the definitive Irish based E-Commerce resource set. - To build a community of interest around the E-Commerce theme and to successfully leverage this community to rapidly move Irish companies towards adapting successful E-Commerce strategies.

Ireland is actively participating in the development of an EU and Global framework for the regulation of electronic activities, particularly in the areas of digital signatures, encryption, electronic contracts and intellectual property.