( 8 March 2002, HONG KONG) Tradelink Electronic Commerce Limited and Maersk Sealand announce today the launch of the Electronic Shipping Order (SO) service, which provides for the electronic submission of shipping orders (shipping instructions) and electronic draft Bills of Lading.

The new service is designed to provide a fast, reliable and secure communication channel and mailbox facilities for exporters, forwarders and carriers to execute shipping order transactions.

By inputting shipping instructions in the Tradelink software, shippers will be able to send electronic shipping instructions, with the data automatically fed into Maersk Sealand's system.

In return, Maersk Sealand will send back a draft B/L to the shipper, who may view the document from the software and verify the details before issuance of original B/L.

Mr Steen Lund, Deputy Managing Director of Maersk Sealand, said, "Shippers will save time in faxing shipping instructions and Bill of Lading data quality will be improved. The Electronic Shipping Order Service is a ready made solution for shippers to conduct electronic business with carriers with no investments in systems development by the exporters."

Mr Justin Yue, CEO of Tradelink, said, "The Electronic Shipping Order service is designed to streamline the flow of shipping documentation. It does not only save time and resources, it also offers advantages like longer service hours, easy compilation and convenient retrieval of data and secured online transactions using Digi-Sign ID-Certs."

To promote the electronic Shipping Order service, shippers may enjoy using the service for free Tradelink subsidiary Digi-Sign Certification Services Limited will also waive the Digi-Sign ID-Cert fee (valid for two years) of HK$50 for electronic Shipping Order service customers.

For more information on the electronic Shipping Order service, please call Tradelink Sales Hotline at 2599 1700.

For press enquiries, please contact Tradelink (Corporate Communications) on 2599 1686.