The Acting Minister of Information Technology has announced the timeline for the government's e-commerce strategy.

"We want an e-commerce strategy in place for New Zealand by the end of the year," Trevor Mallard said.

"Officials are developing a consultation framework and will be talking to key stakeholders and government departments over the next three months.

"Cabinet is expecting to see a draft strategy by August and a draft paper will go to the government's electronic commerce summit in late September or early October.

"One of the aims of that summit is to demonstrate that this government is serious about ecommerce, and that it wants to work in partnership with the private sector to implement an ecommerce strategy.

"This e-commerce strategy is vital. It will be an important component in achieving our goals to promote an inclusive, innovative economy for the benefit of all New Zealanders.

"There are some major issues which have to be tackled and we want to do it right. In particular we will have to coordinate our e-commerce objectives with other key government initiatives such as the e-government vision and our goals for economic and regional growth.

"Having said that, the government needs to get the wheels in motion. New Zealand lacks a comprehensive e-commerce strategy and the longer we leave it the further we will fall behind. It is vital we have one in place if we are to keep pace with the rest of the world," Trevor Mallard said.

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