South China's Guangdong province plans to pass a law which will make secret codes, passwords and fingerprints as legitimate as a written signature, thereby formalizing electronic transactions.
The draft Regulations on Guangdong Provincial Electronic Transactions is still under examination and awaiting approval by the provincial legislature.
"Safe electronic signatures have the same effect as written-on-paper signatures in electronic transactions," stipulates Article Eight of the bill.
It is China's first regulation on the management of electronic commerce, according to the Guangdong Provincial Administration of Information Industry (GPAII).
An electronic signature is defined as electronic records that can distinguish one's identity, including numeral signatures, passwords, on-line encryption keys and physiological characteristics like the iris of eye and fingerprints.
"We have pooled experience from the legislation in developed nations and regions for our current lawmaking," said GPAII director Xu Zhibiao.
Xu noted that Guangdong was shaping its e-commerce infrastructure, on-line certificate center, payment system and other supporting systems, all necessary in electronic business.
Electronic transactions have become one of the predominant channels of trade in the province, where more than 220 million credit cards have been issued, accounting for over one fifth of those in China.
Moreover, Guangdong set up a portal website (www.gz-ec.com) in June 2000 to support the growing number of transactions over the Internet. Approximately 200 websites now deal with on-line e-commerce business under the website.
A private firm owner visiting the legislative meeting said he hoped to learn the details as soon as possible.
It could help a great deal with his business in the future, he added, on condition of anonymity.
Guangdong, Shanghai and China's capital, Beijing, are three leading players in e-commerce in China.
(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2002)
