Whitehall's efforts to get a million small and medium sized
enterprises (SMEs) trading online by 2002 have failed, and the
Government should take a step back and allow businesses to drive
their own e-commerce agendas, says the British Chambers of Commerce
(BCC).
In a scathing report published earlier this week, the BCC dismissed
the Government's efforts to have one million SMEs trading online by
2002 as a "hindrance and a distraction" which is irrelevant to
business.
Citing figures published recently in the Government's Business in
the Information Age 2001 survey showing that only 540,000 SMEs are
trading online, the BCC report said businesses would not respond to
"artificial targets" set by the Government.
Sally Low, e-business policy adviser for the BCC, said, "Business
and government share the same ambition for Britain's small firms to
develop world class e-business [but] British companies are not in
the business of fulfilling aspirational targets set by any
government.
The Department of Trade & Industry refused to comment directly
on the report, but said, "We have set challenging targets and will
continue to work to help UK businesses to get to the future first."