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Sri Lanka signed the UN Convention on the Use of Electronic Communication in International Contracts known as Electronic Contracting Convention at the special event held at the UN Headquarters on July 6, 2006. The Convention enhances legal certainty and commercial predictability in international contracts transacted through electronic communications. It sets the criteria to establish equivalence between electronic communication and paper documents and between electronic authentication methods and handwritten signatures. In addition, the Convention contains rules on how to locate a party to an electronic transaction, to determine time and place of dispatch and receipt of electronic communication. The Convention which was prepared by the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) was adopted the UN General Assembly in November 2005. Several features of the Convention have been incorporated in the Electronic Transaction Act No. 19 of 2006 of Sri Lanka, which came into operation from May 2006. The legislation in Sri Lanka is based on the UNCITRAL Model law on e -commerce and the Model Law on e-signatures and facilitates domestic and international electronic commerce by eliminating exiting legal barriers. It promotes public confidence in the authenticity, integrity and reliability of electronic commerce. The legislation was prepared by the Department of the Legal Draftsman with legal and policy inputs from the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) ensuring that the legislation is in conformity with international standards and practices in the filed. The Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN, Prasad Kariyawasam, signed the Convention on behalf of Sri Lanka. Ambassador Kariyawasam while thanking the UNCITRAL Working Group for its useful work in finalizing the Convention, stated in his address; "We are happy to note that the Convention formulated by the UNCITRAL establishes greater legal certainty through the development of norms and best practices, in the field of International contracts, which will contribute towards the growth of Electronic Commerce. We believe that this is an important step in the right direction." Ambassador Kariyawasam also expressed his appreciation to the UNCITRAL Secretariat for its guidance in the preparation of Sri Lanka's Electronic Transactions and added; “Through the legislation enacted in Sri Lanka we hope to harness to potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to the rural masses, by empowering our people with the benefits of e-commerce. Towards this objective Sri Lanka has embarked on a multi-donor led e-Sri Lanka Development, implemented by ICTA. This project is a comprehensive e-development initiative, specifically designed to address a broad spectrum of activities to foster economic growth as well as to address poverty alleviation and promote social integration and peace". The Cabinet of Ministers authorized the signing of the Convention consequent to a memorandum submitted by Hon. Tissa Vitharana, Minister of Science and Technology. China and Singapore also signed the Convention at the special event.
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