The Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) is drafting changes to the Electronic Transactions Act to support recognition of electronic transferable records (ETRs), which will be one of the key parts of the infrastructure for trade and digital transactions in the future.ETRs will play an important role in upgrading the country's trade and financial systems by helping to reduce reliance on paper documents, speed up transactions and support data connectivity between agencies and trading partner countries, the agency says.
Khanit Phatong, an ETDA adviser, said although Thailand has had an electronic transactions law in place for more than 20 years -- the Electronic Transactions Act 2001 -- and businesses have become familiar with e-commerce and the increasing use of electronic documents such as e-invoices, uncertainty remains over whether certain key documents can genuinely be converted into digital format.
"This is particularly the case for documents involving the transfer of ownership or rights through possession of an original document, such as bills of lading, negotiable instruments or cheques."
At the international level, the UN Commission on International Trade Law has developed the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records to support the use of transferable documents, such as bills of exchange and bills of lading, in electronic form while maintaining the same legal effect as paper-based documents.
