Govt.: 2009 digital certification market at US$23mn

Chile's government sees the local digital certification market being dominated by four companies in the long term, with the industry billing US$22.6mn/year by 2009, deputy economy minister Alvaro Diaz told BNamericas. Economies of scale will prevent the market from growing beyond four companies, Diaz said, adding the industry would come to involve some 2 million people by that date. Diaz said three companies are currently seeking government authorization to become certifiers. They include Once, the certification arm of the national chamber of commerce; Acepta, a unit of the local banking association; and E-Certchile of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce (CCS). E-Certchile submitted its papers on Monday, Diaz said. The company already has 1,000 individuals using their digital certification system, which operates an encryption process that guards the confidentiality and reliability of messages, verifying the password through the same certificate. "This is the key point in terms of the use of an electronic signature, if digitally certified documents are to have the same value as paper documents," CCS general manager Claudio Ortiz said. Ortiz also noted the savings advantages made possible by digital certification. The CCS has said that Chilean companies could save up to US$300mn/year if they all adopted electronic tax payment methods. Diaz said companies that want to become digital certifiers are not subject to minimum capital requirements. The only prerequisite for digital certifiers is civil liability insurance, valued at 5,000 UF (Chile's inflation-adjusted currency; 1 UF=16,750 pesos=US$22.7).