1.4.2 e-Transactions, e-Commerce and e-Tourism E-TRANSACTIONS – The cornerstone for developing a more comprehensive and widespread e-transactions in the Republic of Serbia was laid down with the passing of the Law on Electronic Documents, Electronic Identification and Trust Services in Electronic Transactions, as well as the Law on e-Government. These two laws set forth the main legal concepts that enable etransactions between public authorities, citizens and businesses. Electronic document – The Law that the validity, evidentiary power and written form of a document cannot be contested just because it is in electronic form. This is a crucial provision, since it reflects the applicable principle and ensures that electronic documents are recognised on an equal footing with paper-based ones. The provision is also important because it implies that both paper-based and electronic forms of documents are considered to be made in writing. The Law also provides for digitalisation of paper-based documents and grants such documents equal evidentiary power as the original, by providing that documents may be digitalised by the body passing the document, a notary public or a person designated for digitalisation and provides for digitalisation in a procedure before a public authority. These legal arrangements enable the conduct of procedures before public authorities electronically instead of using paper-based documents, which cuts the use of hard-copy documents, increases document accessibility and facilitates document searches and use, which ultimately results in lower costs of hard copies and archiving. However, while legal prerequisites for wider use of electronic documents and e-transactions have been provided, replies to a questionnaire which was distributed to all ministries and which 11 ministries answered, have shown that the level of electronic communications with parties remains relatively low. Namely, 7 ministries have electronic addresses for the receipt of electronic submissions, while 4 ministries have no such address; also, seven ministries provide electronic services, while three ministries do not. It was also found that two ministries applied Articles 11 and 12 of the Law on Electronic Documents, Electronic Identification and Trust Services in Electronic Transactions, which provide for the digitalisation of paper-based documents and almost full transition to electronic communication and transactions with electronic documents. Electronic identification – The Law also provides for electronic communication, i.e. the procedure of using personal identification data which enable natural persons or legal entities to access electronic services. The Register of Electronic Identification Schemes has been established pursuant to the Law, with two such schemes registered thus far by the IT and e-Government Office. The Law provides for three levels of confidence of electronic identification schemes and it is paramount to have as many such schemes included in the Register as possible, given that such schemes may be used in communication with public authorities, since an electronic identification scheme with a high degree of confidence replaces a party’s signature on a submission, although this does not preclude the application of other levels of confidence in cases where the law allows public authorities to use lower confidence levels. Qualified trust services – Before the Law on Electronic Documents, Electronic Identification and Trust Services in Electronic Transactions came into force, the Republic of Serbia used qualified electronic signature and qualified electronic timestamp services. The new Law 29