(Hong Kong, 30 May 2005) The Pan-Asian E-Commerce Alliance
(PAA) held its 19th Steering Committee meeting in Lijiang,
China from 24th May to 25th May 2005. Established in July
2000, the PAA is the first regional e-Commerce alliance
in Asia that provides secure and reliable IT infrastructure
to promote efficient global trade and logistics. Current
PAA Members comprise Tradelink of Hong Kong, Trade-Van of
Chinese Taipei, CrimsonLogic of Singapore, KTNET of Korea,
CIECC of China, TEDI Club of Japan, Dagang Net of Malaysia,
TEDMEV of Macau and CAT Telecom Public Co. Ltd of Thailand.
Mr. Ryu Chang Moo, Chairman of the PAA and CEO of KTNET
reported with great pride the further progress PAA Members
had made in facilitating electronic cross border trade in
the region. Mr. Ryu was also confident that PAA would play
an increasingly greater role in international bodies, like
APEC, WTO, WCO and ASEM, so as to achieve the goal of paperless
trade beyond Pan-Asia.
Mr. Yang Feng Yi, Vice Director of CIECC, hosted the PAA
Welcome Dinner, and said that the PAA’s achievement
in secure cross-border Customs declaration, electronic Certificate
of Origin (e-CO) and trade document exchanges have enhanced
and promoted the objective of achieving paperless trading.
He believed that the work of the PAA would play an important
role in the economic growth of the Asia-Pacific region.
Mr. Yang told the gathering that CIECC as a founding member
of PAA would continue to provide electronic commerce services
both in China and worldwide. Learning from its participation
in the PAA, CIECC has expanded its service coverage to finance,
logistics, and insurance. It has also widened its cooperation
with other Chinese government departments, such as General
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine
of the People's Republic of China, Customs General Administration
of the Peoples’ Republic of China etc.
During the meeting, PAA Members reported progress made
in cross border acceptance of e-CO and the support received
from the local customs and trade authorities of the various
economies. By the end of 2005, Chinese Taipei Customs are
prepared to accept e-COs from exporters in Korea, and later
from other PAA economies. KTNET and CrimsonLogic have similar
arrangement for Korea and Singapore. In Singapore, CrimsonLogic
has developed an e-CO solution which is widely accepted
and adopted by customs worldwide. This involves the ability
to have secure digital water- marks on ordinary A4 paper.
TEDMEV announced the start of its electronic Manifest (EMAN)
project for Macau SAR. Apart from the Macau local Manifest
submission, the service will be further enhanced as a joint
development of TEDMEV and Tradelink to link up to the electronic
Manifest service already in use in Hong Kong. The solution
will provide an integrated platform for carriers to submit
Manifests to both Macau and Hong Kong customs. With the
launch of the service in December 2005, carries will benefit
from the closer cooperation among Macau and Hong Kong. Other
PAA Members have similar plans to expand this cross border
electronic manifest service.
CIECC reported to the meeting of its assignment by APEC
to assess the degree of success that APEC economies have
achieved towards the objective of paperless trade. The other
PAA Members will share their experiences with CIECC in this
area, which will be reported in the APEC meeting to be held
in Beijing in early September this year.
The 20th PAA Steering Committee Meeting will be held in
Tokyo in the week of 12 September 2005.
