Gazetting of Bill to amend Electronic Transaction Act big boost for competitiveness

Sri Lanka recently gazetted a Bill to amend the Electronic Transactions Act which has been hailed as a major breakthrough to enhance the country’s competitiveness.

The move follows an amendment to the Electronic Transactions Act, formulated by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), the Legal Draftsman’s Department and the Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. 

“Sri Lanka will have cutting-edge, the most up-to-date legislation to facilitate cross-border digital commerce based on UNCITRAL standards. The proposed amendments will provide greater legal validity for e-Commerce and e-Business providers who wish to use Sri Lanka as a hub and adopt Sri Lankan law as the applicable law by ensuring international validity of such e-Contracts within state parties to the UN ECC Treaty,” ICTA Director and Legal Advisor Jayantha Fernando said.

The amendment will further enhance the service delivery to citizens through e-Government initiatives and also facilitate the use of biometric-based authentication technologies to enhance the effectiveness of Digital IDs. 

The Bill is to amend the Electronic Transactions Act No. 19 of 2006 to bring the Act in line with the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (New York, 2005) (e-CC).  

“This amendment brings our legislation fully in line with the UN Electronic Communications Convention (UN ECC), which Sri Lanka ratified in July 2015, becoming the first in South Asia to do so. Sri Lanka is the second country in Asia after Singapore to ratify the treaty and adopt it domestically. Australia has completed its domestic process and is expected to ratify UN ECC shortly, followed by South Korea and others. So we have overtaken some developed countries,” Fernando added.