Singapore ratifies UN Convention on electronic communications

The move is set to strengthen Singapore’s position as trusted global infocomm hub.

Singapore has become the first country in Asia to ratify The United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts on 7 July, 2010.

“We welcome Singapore’s ratification of the Convention. The UN Convention will ensure that businesses are not subject to different standards for domestic and international transactions, and will also minimise complications that could arise from different definitions and conventions in cross-border transactions,” said Mr Renaud Sorieul, Secretary of the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

The ratification of the UN Convention complements Singapore’s Electronic Transactions Act (ETA), which is the legal framework for domestic electronic transactions. The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) completed a review of the ETA recently, which included several rounds of public consultations and discussions on the UN Convention in order to align both legal frameworks.

Following the review, the amended Electronic Transactions Bill was passed by Parliament on 19 May and the revised ETA came into effect on 1 July 2010.

Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, said: “Given the increasing use of the electronic medium for communications and transactions, and substantial growth in global e-commerce trade, Singapore’s ratification of the Convention reaffirms our commitment to strengthening Singapore’s position as a trusted global infocomm hub.”

“I am pleased that Singapore is now among the first in the world to ratify the Convention. The Convention sets a new global standard for national electronic commerce legislation and will remove barriers to cross-border electronic commerce arising from disharmony in national electronic commerce legislation. We hope to see more states adopting the Convention so as to achieve harmonisation of electronic commerce legislation amongst countries.” said Mr Vanu Gopala Menon, Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the UN, at the ratification ceremony in New York.

The UN Convention was developed by the UNCITRAL working group, chaired by Singapore, and is an updated international legal framework for e-commerce that takes into account developments brought on by the Internet and other technological advances.