Smart business pleases 4,500

ABOUT 4,500 Western Australians took an opportunity to learn about electronic commerce at the recent SmartBusiness ’99 Electronic Commerce Expo.

The expo, jointly run by the Department of Commerce and Trade and the Small Business Development Corporation, was designed to showcase the opportunities offered by this new medium.

The expo was a solution driven, rather than product driven event. Instead of companies touting their products alone, organisations demonstrated how their products solved e-commerce problems.

Works and Services Minister Mike Board said WA was better placed than perhaps any other region to reap the benefits of e-commerce.

He said the WA Government had taken a role in fostering e-commerce with a plan to increase awareness, build confidence and kick start the industry.

Of particular interest is WA’s small to medium-sized business sector. E-commerce is being hailed as allowing SMEs to compete equally with the big boys.