RIYADH, 20 February — An international exhibition and conference on e-commerce, the first of its kind, will be held here from May 6 to 10 to evaluate the status of e-commerce in the Kingdom, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rasheed, vice president for research at King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology, announced at a press conference here yesterday.
He said KACST would implement PKI (Public Key Infrastructure), a security-based infrastructure for e-commerce, soon to prevent the misuse of Internet for fraudulent transactions.
The exhibition will be divided into three sections, with the first day devoted to a discussion of e-commerce worldwide. The second day's session will be on e-government and the third day will focus on Saudi Arabia. Dr. Fahad Al-Hoymany, director of Internet Unit, will chair a session on e-commerce in the Kingdom. All the discussions will center on the growth of e-commerce worldwide vis-a-vis its current status in the Kingdom.
The event is taking place at a time when Internet use in the Kingdom is set for a big boom, with the number of regional Internet users expected to grow by 270 percent next year. According to REC, one million new users are likely to go online in the next two years.
The center of this growth will be the Kingdom, a market that represents 60 percent of all regional spending in the key economic sectors.
Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce, Dr. Fawaz Al-Alami said a high-level committee has been set up to draft regulations for e-commerce in the Kingdom. The objective is to safeguard the interests of the users and protect them against e-fraud.
Dr. Al-Rasheed said leading e-commerce companies in the world would be participating in the exhibition.
