VIENNA, 20 September (UN Information Service) -- Madagascar has signed the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Madagascar joins the Central African Republic, China, Lebanon, Senegal, Singapore and Sri Lanka as a signatory to this treaty.

Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 23 November 2005, the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts aims to enhance legal certainty and commercial predictability where electronic communications are used in relation to international contracts. It addresses the determination of a party's location in an electronic environment; the time and place of dispatch and receipt of electronic communications; the use of automated message systems for contract formation; and the criteria to be used for establishing functional equivalence between electronic communications and paper documents - including "original" paper documents - as well as between electronic authentication methods and hand-written signatures. Information on the Convention, including the webcast of a special event dedicated to the Convention held on 6 July 2006, is available on the UNCITRAL website.