According to the UNCITRAL Press Release announcing the Convention's adoption on 15 July 2005:

"Aimed at enhancing legal certainty and commercial predictability where electronic communications are used in relation to international contracts, the provisions of the convention deal with determining a party’s location in an electronic environment; the time and place of dispatch and receipt of electronic communications; and the use of automated message systems for contract formation. Other provisions contain criteria establishing functional equivalence between electronic communications and paper documents -- including “original” paper documents -- as well as between electronic authentication methods and hand-written signatures. The new convention will assure companies and traders around the world that contracts negotiated electronically are as valid and enforceable as traditional paper-based transactions."

From the point of view of facilitating e-commerce, this initiative is important as it will establish uniform legal terms for e-commerce. As such, parties engaging in business will face fewer uncertainties and thus lower transaction costs.

On a systemic level, the initiative is highly significant because it marks a deepening in the degree to which countries are harmonizing their laws. Earlier UNCITRAL initiatives in e-commerce have taken the form of "model" laws, which signatories could choose to emulate in domestic legislation. This instrument, however, goes much further in that, if agreed, signatories would be agreeing directly to recognize common terms in contract law.