An action plan on E-Business will be presented to Cabinet before the end of summer, Senators were told last week.

Following his outline of Government?s E-Business Green Paper which was debated in the House of Assembly last year, Sen. Raymond Tannock updated his colleagues on progress made on implementing its recommendations.

He said that Government will be publishing the 2004 E-Business Assessment, an ?important element? of the action plan, before the end of the month.

The assessment, he said, is an ?in-depth assessment of the adoption of E-Business by both local and international companies in Bermuda and thus important to the overall strategies for E-Business adoption.?

Sen. Tannock added: ?The department has not, however, been resting on its laurels since the (House of Assembly) debate on the Green Paper. We have been active in rolling out an E-Business marketing campaign in the US and the UK and have also been working on the ground in Bermuda to establish an enhanced dialogue with IT and telecommunications companies. We have also introduced the E-Government portal.?

The assessment involved 50 direct interviews with companies and a telephone survey of 500 companies, he informed the Senate.

And an Information Age Forum, as recommended by the Green Paper, has been established.

Its first meeting was attended by more than 40 IT and telecom companies and a second will be held soon to discuss the costs of transacting E-Business and the reliability of the telecommunications infrastructure.

He pointed to lower prices for Broadband Internet access as an important success that was encouraged by the Telecommunications Ministry and discussed in the Green Paper.

And on Bermuda?s E-Business marketing initiatives, being handled by Troncossi Public Relations and Aardvark Communications, he said a marketing campaign targeting North American and UK businesses began in February.

Research.bm has also been probing the attitudes of US businesses toward investing in E-Business in Bermuda.

?Fifty interviews have been held and the results, which will enable better targeting of marketing dollars, will be released shortly.?

The E-Government Portal project was also making steady progress, Sen. Tannock reported.

?All 58 Government departments and agencies have a presence on the Portal, many with rich content and all with contact details. Examples of content include a history of the Police Service, ferry and bus timetables, weather forecasts and Planning information.?

?Subsequent phases of the Portal project will see existing and new applications on the Portal by the end of the year. Examples including the paying of payroll tax, applications for vehicle and scooter licences and booking tests.?

The Bermuda Technology Education Collaborative and the Ministry of Education are working together to see personal computers, with high speed Internet connections, in every classroom of Government schools, senators heard. ?In addition we have encouraged the development of laptop programmes at both of our senior schools as well as the introduction of laptop carts in the Middle Schools.?

And recommendations for data protection legislation should find their way to Cabinet soon.

Senators on both sides of the Upper Chamber praised the technical officers for the quality and thoroughness of the report. ?This probably constitutes one of the finest pieces of work done by Government,? said Opposition Sen. Leonard Santucci.

?Whenever the Government engages in broad consultation to the degree that it has ... I think commendations are in order.?

Senator Kim Swan reminded the Senate that the UBP proposed making E-commerce the third pillar of the economy in 1998 and was ridiculed for it.