§ 10. Fiona MactaggartTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on his progress in developing a modernised commercial regime for electronic transactions. [71606]
§ Mr. WillsThe Government are committed to developing the UK as the best place in the world for trading electronically and to helping many more small businesses exploit the opportunities of electronic commerce, with the goal of tripling the number of SMEs wired up to the digital market place from 350,000 to 1 million by 2002. The White Paper "Our Competitive Future: Building the Knowledge Drive Economy" set out a wide range of actions to help achieve these goals. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will be publishing an implementation plan for the White Paper shortly.