SL Cabinet approves ratification of UN Electronic Communications Convention, second in Asia to do so
Sri Lanka’s Cabinet of Ministers this week approved this country’s ratification of the United Nations Electronic Communications Convention, and with this approval, which is only the second in Asia, Sri Lanka has even surpassed China, Vietnam and Thailand who are amending their domestic legislation to ratify this Convention.
Further, the US is also presently amending its state-level legislation to, ultimately, enable the US federal government to ratify this Convention. To date, Singapore, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Russia, Congo and Montenegro are the only other countries ahead of Sri Lanka in the ratification process.
Commenting on this development, Jayantha Fernando, Legal Advisor at Sri Lanka’s ICT Agency, stated: “This is another first for (for Sri Lanka in) South Asia and a landmark policy achievement. This will ensure greater legal certainty for e-Commerce and e-Business providers who will want to use Sri Lankan law as the applicable law and ensure international validity for such e-Contracts. Ratification of this Convention will also ensure legal validity for Electronic Bills of Lading and other international legal instruments, enhancing the ability for Sri Lanka in its move towards paperless trade facilitation. This will go hand-in-hand with the new policy towards our Customs Department’s 24/7 clearing operations”.
Meanwhile, it was also noted that, in the “preparation of the Sri Lankan Electronic Transactions Act No. 19 of 2006, the features and underlying principles of this UN Electronic Communications Convention were included in the Act. Officials from Sri Lanka, namely, Legal Draftsman of Sri Lanka and ICTA Legal Advisor actively participated in the Negotiation of this UN Convention during the period 2004-2005, through deliberations at UNCITRAL Working Group IV. As such Sri Lanka has participated in the formulation of this Convention”.
Further, it also emerged that “significant contribution of the Convention consists in facilitating the operation of other international treaties and conventions—particularly trade-related ones. These include the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York, 10 June 1958), the Convention on the Limitation Period in the International Sale of Goods (New York, 14 June 1974), the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (Vienna, 11 April 1980), the United Nations Convention on the Liability of Operators of Transport Terminals in International Trade (Vienna, 19 April 1991), the United Nations Convention on Independent Guarantees and Stand-by Letters of Credit (New York, 11 December 1995), and the United Nations Convention on the Assignment of Receivables in International Trade (New York, 12 December 2001)”.