commerce

B.	Commerce, services and teleworking

Nowadays, electronic commerce is having a significant impact on the economies of developed countries. In all cases, these experiences are very recent and have to be consolidated. In order for electronic commerce to be exceptionally interesting, it is necessary that the number of people connected to the Internet should be growing exponentially. In fact this is already happening, but the biggest increase in numbers will only happen when Internet access is available via the television. Such apparatus is just beginning to come onto the market and use will become wider and wider with Internet access becoming ever easier.

The Internet has the potential to become one of the most active sales media of the next decade, creating numerous highly qualified jobs. Further more, sales via the Internet could revolutionize commerce, allowing clients to shop from home for a wide variety of merchandise and services from around the world. An example of this potential is that of the initiative taken by the United States in encouraging the setting up of a legal framework for electronic commerce, which would serve both to promote it and to protect users.

1. PIRS project

The Chamber of Commerce Industry and Services took the initiative in proposing a telematic information system —called the PIRS project— which would group all the information on Andorra concerning culture, tourism and commerce.

As a showcase for Andorra, the PIRS project has to be a national project within the Internet environment, tied in to virtual commerce and which would serve as an electronic catalogue of all the products and services offered in Andorra. In this catalogue one would be able to consult the characteristics, the availability and even the prices of those products and services.

There is a good consensus surrounding the PIRS project in the sense that it offers huge potential for the country. It is a very important project for Andorra, but there must be certain precautions taken. It must be a collective undertaking.

1. Develop the PIRS project

The PIRS project is a telematic information system on Andorra. The information within the system includes information of use to the local community (cultural activities, weather and traffic reports etc), tourist information (hotels, excursions, skiing etc) and commercial type information (businesses, wholesalers, services etc).

Access to this information would be by Internet links from any geographic location.

In the first phase, the system would only have information on the various services and products and, eventually, there would be direct connections to business servers offering product commercialization. That is to say, it would not be possible to effect transactions through the main system: These would take place by making a connection to the various private commercial servers, making the transaction direct with the supplier and under the direct responsibility of the business in question.

The organism for overall responsibility for the system would be the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services. As the project has been defined, the cost of the operation is estimated to be relatively small.

Possible additional sources of finance for the system could be:

To supply information free to all businesses, but require payment from those who wish to have a direct connection to their own servers, that would provide additional information and the possible commercialization of services and products.
In the case where attention is given by telephone, the enquirer would pay directly the cost of the call.

There would have to be a system whereby the information providers were made (legally?) responsible for providing truthful and up-to-date information to feed into the system.

The first phase would only allow for telematic connection (Internet or Intranet) Thereafter it would have to be studied whether direct telephone enquiries could be handled.

In the future, the project could be extended to allow transactions directly on the main system.

2. Virtual shopping malls

Currently around the world there are some experiments with shopping malls at individual business level, or through groups, to find out their real potential in practice.

It is predicted that the increase in volume for electronic sales between 1998 and 2000 will be in the order of 380%

In the United States, the country which has the biggest incidence of electronic commerce, the most important sectors during 1997 were (figures in millions of $):

Computer hardware and software (863)
Travel (654)
Entertainment (298
Books and music (156)
Gifts and flowers (149)
Clothing and shoes (92)
Food and drink (90)
Jewelry (38)
Sports goods (20)
Consumer electronics (19)
Other (Toys, Home, etc) (65)

1.	Put into operation a pilot Shopping Mall scheme

Given the predictions of the effect of the information society in the near future, it is considered vital to evaluate the potential of electronic sales of products and services in Andorra. Therefore, it is proposed that a pilot scheme for a shopping mall be set up to include all that Andorra offers.

The objective of this shopping mall is for it to serve to familiarize traders that sign up to the scheme with electronic commerce and above all to evaluate, by means of a working platform, the potential for the different products —and for the country as a whole— in this new type of commerce.

The promoter of the Virtual Shopping Mall has to be the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services in conjunction with a technologically qualified partner (which would have to be a high-level company in the telematic sector) with some additional institutional support.

In a first phase (lasting about six months) those businesses interested could be offered space at nominal cost. Once the evaluation phase has been consolidated and if it is considered viable, the project could continue with contributions from those businesses that make sales by means of the Shopping Mall.

The principal market would be outside the country, but it is possible to consider the potential of the shopping mall for visitors and for residents who could have products delivered to their door. There could be terminals connected to the shopping mall at different points in Andorra such as hotels.

At the external level, outside Andorra, the Virtual Shopping Mall would publicize the country and would give information on the products and services that would include technical characteristics, availability and prices.

3. Multiple service terminals

It is also necessary to consider the terminals already existing in Andorra (for example the bank cashpoint terminals), upgrading them to allow diversified value-added transactions for clients.

1. Promote the installation of multiple service terminals

Some of the uses of these terminals have already been highlighted in neighboring countries where, for example, cashpoint terminals have been adapted to allow for the purchase of tickets for the cinema, theatre, concerts, cultural activities, travel tickets etc and even to allow people searching for work to register their curriculum vitae as well as for other applications.

The geographic dispersion of these terminals makes for easy and powerful access for the user and for interaction with information and transaction systems of many companies and entities.

There could also be consideration made of an extension to the system whereby citizens could accomplish administrative transactions, such as consultation on, and processing of, paperwork, submission of CASS claim forms, payment of taxes and rates, certification applications etc.

The banks would have to be responsible for this project.

4. Supply of high value-added services and teleworking

There must be encouragement for businesses and professionals to set up in Andorra and, without the limitations of frontiers, offer their services around the world.

The suppliers of these services could enjoy the benefits of residing here (ecology, environment, quality and high level of services, geographical location, juridical protection etc).

Society in Andorra must be trained and informed of the possibilities of the new technologies. The creation of this type of enterprise must be promoted, with start-up incentives, since the local circumstances allow for competitive advantage.

This promotion must not only be addressed to Andorran entrepreneurs but to foreign businesses and professionals who could be attracted by the chance of operating out of Andorra.

One of the future possibilities, for example, will be the necessity for intermediaries to filter large quantities of information and pass it on to clients in usable form. These types of activity could easily be exercised from Andorra, with significant advantages for the professionals who develop them. There are many other examples, such as international call handling, logistics centers, international product and services distribution centers, translation and documentation, educational centers etc.

1. Prepare the environment that will favour the installation of high value-added businesses

To achieve these objectives, a framework must be prepared which will be adequate in technological, operational, economic and legal terms.

The new businesses in these market sectors must be able to count on having competitive operating costs.

Andorra could be a good place to develop pilot projects, as long as co-operation between government, business and some international sponsor (of the promotional or commercial type) can be assured, as has been done in other zones and regions of Europe. One example is that of the Picardy region in France, where many businesses have set up, in order to benefit from low cost communications with Paris and many other technical and financial advantages.

The legal framework has to be revised completely. The "Type C" company project is one way of achieving this.

2. Prepare the environment in Andorra which favours teleworking

The promotion of teleworking, or off-site working from Andorra, where geographical situation is not important, is one of the great potentials existing that can make Andorra a society orientated to providing high value-added services.

3. Develop a communications strategy with neighboring economic centers

From the technological point of view of we must have adequate, wide-ranging channels of communication at competitive cost so that, for example, telecommunications from Andorra can be effected at the same price, or almost the same price, as if they were effected from Barcelona or Toulouse. The application of local telecommunications tariffs in respect of these two cities, so closely connected to Andorra, is a viable alternative from the technical and political point of view.

4. Organize training and information sessions about the new technologies

The authorities must organize sessions, directed at society in general, which explain the new technologies and show practical applications for different social and economic sectors. The objective of these periodic sessions is to sensitize Andorra society to the technological changes taking place and how to use them.

5. Project to encourage new entrepreneurs

Within the information society environment new business initiatives must be developed which give support to the new challenges facing us.

The enterprise spirit must be developed in our society. Being a young entrepreneur these days is very difficult. In the first place there are difficulties in acquiring the necessary skills to create and manage a new business; creating business plans and learning about management accounts and budgets requires specific training. Secondly, there are the material difficulties in getting any new business started: finance, physical location etc. Lastly, there are the difficulties of methodology, which are only acquired with experience: staff relations, for example. Because of all this, we need to find mechanisms that assist, especially amongst the young, the creation of new businesses and that encourage the development of the enterprise spirit.

We should develop a project for entrepreneur training, in which young professionals from different disciplines (for example economists with computer specialists and designers) and the government will supply the methodology and the resources (premises etc) to encourage entrepreneurial activity. The length of the training will be limited and the activity real; that is to say the business-training scheme would produce real products for real clients. Participation in these schemes would cost nothing, but neither would anyone receive pay.

The objective is that at the end of the training period, the participants would be in a position to start a business venture and that a good percentage of them would succeed. As a complement, there already exist some initiatives in Andorra designed to support these new entrepreneurs (for example from some banks, who offer financing).

The themes (products) which would be handled in these training groups would be in line with the strategic objectives of the White Paper.