IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The provision of and integrated and comprehensive atmosphere of information technology (IT) is a prerequisite for E-government, said Mohammad Al-Dallal, a lawyer. He made the statement in his address to a seminar on the sidelines of the First Forum on Legislations of Electronic Transactions which kicked off in Kuwait earlier Monday. Al-Dallal urged for coordination and joint efforts by major public and private players as well as professionals, legislators and the judiciary to launch the e-government project. The relevant legislations require definition of a dealer’s identity and eligibility to carrying out electronic transactions as is the case with traditional transactions, he noted. As for the electronic signature, Al-Dallal said it was the essential element for endorsing the electronic transactions which depends on privacy and confidentiality.

The legislators can play a major role in backing the application of IT in Kuwait and removing the legal and judiciary obstacles facing the e-government project, he said, noting that the government bodies started introducing electronic services without legislative backing.

Lack of legal vision and insufficiency of technical awareness led to lack of legislations for electronic transactions and insufficient electronic commercial transactions in the country, he regretted.

Kuwait needs to develop a long-term legal strategy and a legislative framework for the introduction of the latest information technologies and create the atmospheres conducive to smooth running of e-government, Al-Dallal underscored.

For his part, Justice Adel Al-Eboki identified electronic signature as a unique piece of information in an electronic form which was registered in an electronic file.

An electronic signature serves as traditional signatures and has a high degree of security and privacy. It saves a lot of time and effort, thus ensuring fast commercial transactions, he added in the seminar titled “Legal Administration of IT and E-Transactions.”

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Quelle/Source: Arab Times, 30.04.2008