According to the related organisations, in a conference on "the e-trade network business between Korea and Germany" held recently in Berlin, MOCIE (Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy), KTNET and Hyundai Motor Company decided to end the "paperless e-trade" pilot project which had been conducted by a Task Force team between Hyundai Motor Company and Bosch, and to realise e-trade through e-documents beginning in late December. In this meeting, they also agreed to extend the existing three e-documents (invoice, packing list and dispatch notice) to all other commercial documents including finance and logistics.

The Korean government proposed "Paperless E-Trade" between Hyundai Motor Company and Bosch to kick off the e-trade network business between Korean and EU members at the first ASEM conference on E-Commerce held in Seoul in 2001.

The e-trade project between Korea and Germany is second for Korea following that of Korea and Japan, and when extended to all member countries of the EU is expected to generate enormous added value surpassing Japan in total trade volume.

MOCIE and KTNET agreed to push the joint e-trade project between Korea and the EU as a part of 'IST (Information Society Technology)" project currently being promoted by the EU at a meeting with the EU committee in Brussels.

The two governments reached full agreement on the range of EDI data between Hyundai and Bosch, which will make it possible to transmit electronically invoices, packing lists and dispatch notices, the three most important three electronic documents, in 2002.

The production schedule of Hyundai vehicles, BL and other financial documents will also be transmitted electronically making it possible to integrate trade, logistics and financial operations in a one-stop service. The e-trade platform will be serviced by KTNET.

They also concluded an agreement to push for e-trade between domestic corporations (including 40 large firms) and Siemens as well as Bosch. For that, they will appoint key players to push the business forward. Moreover, they agreed on with the range of EDI documents and the schedule for telecommunication network test, securing support from both governments.

An official at MOCIE said, "The first actual e-trade model in European history will be set up before long and Korea will be the key participant in heralding a new era of e-trade. We are also conducting a legal study on e-documents with the German government to extend the project to other companies."

Meanwhile, this contract will have tremendous effect on the considerations under which Hyundai purchases vehicle parts worth 400 billion won from Bosch. The number of major Korean partner companies of Bosch now exceeds 30. Previously, Hyundai and Bosch exchanged order lists, invoices and packing lists by fax or e-mail.