What separates Bermuda from other offshore sites for electronic commerce is its state-of-the-art telecommunications system, Telecommunications and E-Commerce Minister Renee Webb said yesterday.

The Minister was speaking to participants on the second day of a conference in London on e-commerce and offshore financial services.

She told attendees: "Bermuda is consciously positioning itself in the global e-economy to provide maximum benefit to a whole new generation of business.'' And what made Bermuda unique in comparison to other offshore sites for electronic commerce was that its state-of-the-art telecommunications and requisite technical expertise was already in place.

Said Ms Webb: "Having that telecommunications and technical expertise ready is particularly critical for an off shore site because of the velocity of change.

"There is no margin for technological catch-up,'' she stressed.

"Within a remarkably short period of time, business is going to be transacted in radically different ways that it is even today.'' Earlier in the conference, Ms Webb pointed out that Bermuda was the first offshore jurisdiction to deregulate its telecommunications market which had allowed for strong competitive forces.

And it had a highly developed telecommunications infrastructure which provided maximum bandwidth that was currently operating at a fraction of its capacity, she pointed out.