Tapscott who has been described by US Vice President Al Gore as one of the world's leading cyber-gurus will be the keynote speaker at the Conference on Electronic Commerce and The Capital Market organised by the Securities Industry Development Centre (SIDC) of the Securities Commission.

The conference will be held at the Lagoon 2 Ballroom of the Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on 2 September 1997. It will address issues on the role of technology in disintermediation and globalisation, its impact on overall business strategy and the challenges it poses to the capital market.

Electronic commerce is expected to reshape business processes and impact the Malaysian capital market in various ways including the functions carried out by financial institutions and the needs of investors.

Stockbrokers, futures brokers, exchanges, clearing houses, fund managers, remisiers and regulators would find this conference most useful.

Tapscott is the author of five bestsellers. Aside from The Digital Economy, he is also the co-author of Paradigm Shift: the New Promise of Information Technology which is now in its eleventh printing and has been translated into seven languages.

He is also the chairman of the Alliance for Converging Technologies, a think tank currently conducting a multimillion dollar investigation into the impact of the information superhighway and the new media on business, government and society. The programme is funded by some of the world's largest suppliers and users of emerging technologies.

Other interesting subjects which will be raised at the conference are The Impact of Electronic Commerce on Business Strategy, the Multimedia Supercorridor - An Update and the Regulatory and Developmental Challenges.

The speakers invited include Jeff Ayton of Security First Technology, Jonathan Gould, Mastercard Asia Pacific. MIMOS chief executive officer Tengku Datuk Dr Mohd Azzman Shariffadeen would chair one of the panel session, whose panelists would include Dr Rozali Mohamed Ali, the Executive Director of Commerce-Asset Holding Berhad.

SC Chairman Dato' Dr Munir Majid will give an opening address and also unveil SC's preliminary study report on electronic commerce.

Those interested in attending the conference should contact Ms Sharizan of SIDC at tel: (03) 250 7598 or fax: (03) 252 3693. Fees are at RM700 per participant.