Information society: e-economy, impact on companies

The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Bashir KHANBHAI (EPP-ED, United Kingdom) on the Commission's Communication. (Please refer to the document dated 03/12/02.) Parliament expressed its regret that e-commerce is still primarily a business-to-business activity, and stressed the importance of establishing self-regulation based on codes of conduct in order to create trust between partners operating in both the B2B and B2C sectors in the e-Economy. It emphasised the importance of providing incentives to the private sector to encourage investment in ICT. Expenses relating to ICT and training should be tax-deductible. Finally, Parliament supported the commercialisation of publicly funded research through increased collaboration between public and private researchers e.g. government-funded university research laboratories, which serve as incubators for start-up IT firms. These provide a new source of knowledge, as well as access to highly trained scientists and engineers.�