The first motion presented Monday to the on-going 3rd Session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) calls for enacting a law on E-commerce. The motion, signed by more than 30 other deputies, comes from Zhang Zhongli, an NPC deputy from Shanghai.

Zhang says in the motion that with information globalization going strong, E-commerce has been cropping up in China as a faster and more accurate form of business transaction. But an appropriate legal environment is urgently needed to guarantee its healthy development, he says.

The law should take into consideration the security of E- commerce, prevention of hacker attacks, taxation, and telecommunications market access. It should also cover the protection of data, intellectual property rights, trade marks and domains, as well as the responsibility of Internet providers. The motion also calls for the establishment of a safe and convenient electronic payment system.

The information industry is a new economic growth area, says the octogenarian, adding that the Internet culture is exerting an increasing influence on economy and society and that China should pay special attention to the sector, especially when it is making efforts to join the World Trade Organization. Statistics show that China's Internet users amounted to 8.9 million by the end of 1999.