over `lack of telecommunications plan' By Roger Crombie Bermuda has every intention of "riding the wave of e-commerce to the fullest'', said Telecommunications & E-commerce Minister Renee Webb.

"We either get on board or we forfeit the right to be taken seriously in the global financial community. It's as simple as that,'' she added.

But Ms Webb and her predecessors came in for severe criticism from a number of speakers over Bermuda's alleged lack of a national telecommunications plan.

One speaker said the absence of a plan "makes a lot of this discussion of e-commerce entirely academic. It's like building a fabulous castle without foundations.'' Ms Webb made her comments in a prepared statement prior to the opening of the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce's 1999 e-commerce conference.

The morning keynote speech was delivered by Tom Hoechst, vice president of technology at Oracle Service Industries. His message was that the Internet will change everything. The afternoon keynote speaker, Ed Ehrgott of Charles Schwab, addressed creating secure online financial services.

In the afternoon session on the Bermuda regulatory situation, however, local businessman and e-consultant Bill Storie argued that many things will not change. Such was the speculative nature of the development of e-commerce that almost any view was possible, and no one could be definitively wrong, he said.

Deloitte & Touche speaker James Watlington, discussing business risks in an afternoon session, quoted Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, who said: "We are in the Kittyhawk era of e-commerce'', referring to the very earliest days of aviation.

Mr. Storie's session set much of Bermuda's e-commerce development to date in context; his subject was Bermuda's competition.

While many of the other speakers at the first day of the two-day conference were extolling Bermuda's "lead'' in e-commerce, Mr. Storie pointed out that Malaysia plans to invest $15 to $25 billion in its e-commerce sector, that the Singapore Government has taken control of its e-commerce business to provide comfort to potential investors, Hong Kong has invested $1.6 billion and Ireland has decided to establish itself as a leading European centre.

"Tony Blair has said that he intends the UK to be a world leader in this field by 2002,'' Mr. Storie added, saying that Bermuda's other competitors include France, Denmark, the United States, the Channel Islands and many others.

Mr. Storie, who found a way to introduce Glasgow Rangers into his speech, as he always does, enumerated the hindrances to Bermuda's e-commerce development: "Restrictive legislation from organisations such as the OECD and G-7; lack of industry support, interest or cohesion; lack of an adequately qualified labour pool; and cost prohibitive technology and communications.'' On the last point, he accused successive Bermuda Governments of "legislating the telecommunications industry to suit the shareholders'' of the telecommunications companies, rather than the general public, echoing a point being made all day long by speakers and delegates.

"It's all very well the Minister saying E is for Everybody,'' said a local business service provider, who asked not to be identified, referring to the slogan the Bermuda Government has adopted to encourage Bermudians to take an interest in e-commerce. "But in the highly competitive global e-commerce industry, in a jurisdiction which cannot, and indeeed will not, provide 24-hour-a-day telephone service on a consistent basis, E is for ex-jurisdiction.'' Keynote speaker: Tim Hoechst, vice president of technology at Oracle Services Industries Making a point: Ed Ehrgott, of Charles Schwab, who spoke on online financial services Renee Webb (No caption) BERMUDA E-COMMERCE CONFERENCE '99 CON