Bermuda could win a large slice of the world's e-commerce business via a private bill unveiled yesterday, a local technology company has claimed.

And the framework could position First Atlantic Commerce to act as a magnet for the thriving sector to Bermuda's shores because of the Island's profit-friendly business environment which is touted on the company's website.

The proposed First Atlantic Commerce Ltd. Electronic Commerce Act 1999 was made public for the first time yesterday but Bermuda's House of Assembly and Senate are yet to consider it, or pass it.

Last night the company's president Greg Vasic said the purpose of the private legislation was to "assist with the development of a Bermudian legal infrastructure for the advancement of electronic commerce''.

"We support and have been actively working with the Ministry of Finance concerning the Government of Bermuda's plans to develop ecommerce legislation,'' he said. "Our private Act is a step towards achieving our common goals, and we believe we are the first local company to put forward a comprehensive ecommerce legislative framework.

"E-commerce is an enormous growth opportunity for Bermuda and with this legislation, First Atlantic Commerce is positioned to attract this dynamic and global business to Bermuda''. Finance Ministry chief Ifor Hughes explained last night that once it was adopted, the private bill would only ever apply to the company which had proposed it.

Mr. Hughes confirmed First Atlantic Commerce execs had been involved with some of the work groups set up by BIBA and the Finance Ministry to thrash out the Government's impending ecommerce legislation. "Certainly a number of things they seek to do with their private bill would be similar to what the public legislation would seek to achieve. There will obviously be overlapping issues,'' he said.

Another company which proposed a private bill a few months ago had agreed that if necessary, details could be amended once the Government's legislation was passed to make sure they were both in sync, Mr. Hughes said.

First Atlantic Commerce has endorsed Bermuda as the perfect place to do electronic business.

"(The company) can bring Internet merchants the business benefits of transacting in the tax-neutral jurisdiction of Bermuda,'' its website says.

"Internet merchants are very mobile and we believe we are at the beginning of a major revolution in which Internet merchants relocate to reduce both costs and business complexity.

"We believe that Bermuda is the destination of choice for these forward thinking merchants. Bermuda has no corporate income tax, no capital gains tax, and no sales or other value added taxes. This environment not only increases profits but also simplifies business operations.'' The company is a subsidiary of Bermuda-based CCS Group Limited -- a computer networking, structured cabling, application development, systems integration, telecommunications technology and ecommerce specialist.

First Atlantic Commerce aims to provide Internet merchants with a safe offshore transaction by giving them a secure credit and debit card processing gateway in Bermuda, known as cGate.

This should allow First Atlantic Commerce to handle payment operations on behalf of its client businesses, so each of them can get on with business and avoid the hassle of maintaining costly, complex software on their servers.

As soon as an online customer indicates he wants to buy an item from a merchant's web site, First Atlantic Commerce would take over the purchase details.