News Release

Canadian e-Business Initiative Announces Executive Leadership

OTTAWA, ON - September 26, 2002 - Nancy Hughes Anthony,
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Sep 26, 2002

OTTAWA, ON - September 26, 2002 - Nancy Hughes Anthony, President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and Pierre Paul Allard, President and CEO of Cisco Systems Canada, are delighted to announce the launch of the Canadian e-Business Initiative (CeBI) and introduce the Initiative's Team Leaders. The Canadian e-Business Initiative is a private sector-led partnership that aims to further Canada's e-business success by encouraging productivity, leadership and innovation in small and medium sized businesses.

"We are gratified these highly qualified Canadians are committed to driving our national e-business success and willingly volunteering their time to lead with this initiative", said Pierre Paul Allard. "With a focus on small and medium sized businesses, the CeBI teams will be working hard to ensure their recommendations assist all Canadian companies to understand the productivity gains that e-business can bring to our country", said Nancy Hughes Anthony.

The Honorable Allan Rock, Minister of Industry, announced his support for the Canadian e-Business Initiative on March 25, 2002 to build upon the previous work of the Canadian E-Business Opportunities Roundtable. The Roundtable completed its work and submitted its final report "Fast Forward 3.0: Maintaining the Momentum" on March 25, 2002. "The Canadian e-Business Initiative is an excellent private-public partnership that will help Canada become more competitive in the global economy," said Allan Rock, Minister of Industry. "Electronic commerce is an important part of Canada's Innovation Strategy and this work will help all sectors benefit from e-commerce."

Much of CeBI's work occurs through the product-driven teams announced today, whose goal is to work together to accelerate e-business adoption in Canada. Team leaders have been selected based on their sector expertise, and each team will drive forward a specific area of the Canadian e-Business Initiative.

CeBI Teams

Benchmarking and Metrics measures and reports on Canada's performance as a dynamic, innovative e-economy. This team is undertaking research in Canada and will issue a Canadian e-report card, which reports on the state of e-business in Canada, in spring 2003. Dr. Lorna Marsden, President and Vice Chancellor of York University, is leading this team.

The Benchmarking and Metrics team is currently compiling data to produce Canadian information for a "Net Impact" Study. Preliminary results be released November 2002. The study will evaluate the effectiveness of Internet based technologies as a productivity driver in small and medium sized business across Canada.

Enhancing Canada's brand recognition as a dynamic and innovative e-business leader on the world stage is the purview of the Branding Team. This team is lead by Colleen Moorehead, President e-Trade Canada.

Mr. Bob Johnson, President and CEO of Purolator Courier, will direct Business e-Transformation. This team will work to promote the transformation of business processes, such as supply chain transformation, for small and medium sized businesses in Canada.

e-Business Engagement will focus on awareness and education about current and future success stories to assist the adoption of e-business in Canada by small and medium sized businesses. John Maduri, President, TELUS Business Solutions, of Calgary, is heading this group.

Determining ways to increase access to the appropriate technical and business resources for Canadian small and medium sized businesses is the goal of e-Talent Issues. Leading this team is H.J. (Tom) Thompson, President of Olds College, from Olds, Alberta.

Working with this team, Career Edge, Canada's youth internship program, is launching eCorps, a program that will place recent college or university IT graduates in small enterprises. The program aims provide a selection of internship opportunities across a range of eBusiness projects - from infrastructure building to website development and on to e-commerce capability and other advanced uses.

Online Privacy and Security will provide practical tools that will assist small and medium sized businesses in overcoming online privacy and security related concerns. Albert Wahbe Executive Vice President, Electronic Banking, Scotiabank will spearhead this team, supported by the Canadian Bankers Association.

Currently, the Canadian Bankers Association, a CeBI team member, is running a free cross-Canada seminar entitled Minding Your e-Business for small and medium-sized businesses. The seminar helps SMEs think about security and privacy issues from a business risk perspective, how to assess and find the right solutions for their business. An interim report from the first round of seminars is available on the CeBI and CBA websites.

Liaison between the CeBI and the Government of Canada is the responsibility of Mr. V. Peter Harder, Deputy Minister, Industry Canada. Mr. Harder is also a member of the CeBI Executive Committee along with the two CeBI co-chairs and the team leaders.

The Electronic Commerce Branch of Industry Canada provides secretariat functions to CeBI, including strategic advice, coordination, communications, logistics and government navigation.

Team Leader Bios: www.cebi.ca/members
Further Information at: www.cebi.ca

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