The proposed World E-Commerce Exchange is being set up by a group of heavyweight US investors, a press release stated yesterday.

Al Checchi, former chairman of Northwest Airlines and former Democratic candidate for governor of California last year, will be the chairman designate of the exchange. The World E-Commerce Exchange is being launched through a private members' bill which sparked off opposition from local and international businesses over the company's proposals for commercial transactions on the Internet.

Parliament's private bills committee is expected to meet this week to hear submissions about the proposed company, which is being set up as a subsidiary under KOL Ltd.

"Mr. Checchi brings to the World E-Commerce Exchange a wealth of experience in financial management and strategic planning having successfully re-structured Marriott Hotels Corporation in the 1970s, Walt Disney Corporation in the 1980s and Northwest Airlines in the 1990s,'' the release stated.

Other founding principals include: Steven Manolis, the former managing director of Salomon Bros., a US investment bank. He is president of Manolis and Co. LLC, a privately held merchant bank; Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), a systems integration company with $5 billion in revenue. SAIC is described as the "largest employee-owned scientific, technical and engineering firm in the USA involved in electronic commerce, national security, telecommunications and other areas''; Plan to set up e-commerce exchange Hanson & Molloy, a Washington D.C. law firm that specialises in electronic commerce, Internet, and insurance and reinsurance law; Oven Digital, a New York-based Internet consulting and development company founded by Henry Bar-Levav and Miles McManus. The company clients include the Museum of Modern Art, AT&T, Intel, USA Networks, Gateway, Warner Bros.

Records, Virgin Records and IBM; and Lynda Milligan-Whyte, the senior partner at local law firm Milligan-Whyte and Smith.

The World E-Commerce Exchange is being set up as a contracts exchange to provide a facility for business-to-business and business-to-consumer trading over the Internet, according to the release.

"The Exchange itself will not engage in any trading activity nor will it be in competition with other non-exchange type e-commerce companies,'' the release stated.

The intention is to reduce the risk of doing business on the Internet by clarifying jurisdictional issues, providing dispute resolution procedures, providing controls and security standards, accrediting members, approving the type of products and services traded by members, eliminating credit card fraud, protecting trademarks, copyrights and licence rights, insuring transactions, and prohibiting transactions involving gambling, pornography, illicit drugs and weapons.

"Large corporations around the world will see this Exchange as a means to access new markets and new customers in a safe, secure, reliable and highly credible trading environment,'' the release stated.

The World E-Commerce Exchange is also in negotiations with the Bermuda College to administer for a fee the use of the ".bm'' suffix on Internet domain names. The Bermuda College currently administers the use of the suffix, which signifies an Internet address as belonging to Bermuda.

Bermuda College would still own the rights to the affix. World E-Commerce founder SAIC is the largest shareholder in Network Solutions Inc. which is responsible for registering and administering the use of the ".com'' suffix.

The Bermuda International Business Association (BIBA), the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) among others claim the incorporating bill is an anti-competitive attempt to gather electronic commerce into the company's exclusive domain. The organisations along with a number of companies have filed letters of protest against the bill with the Ministry of Finance.

Ms Milligan-Whyte said those complaining had got their facts wrong.

Founding principal: Lynda Milligan-Whyte