According to related organisations, the Korea Textile Trade Association and the Korea Apparel Industry Association are moving fast to introduce electronic trade systems, key infrastructure in cross-border transactions, compelling their member companies to adopt an Internet-based electronic document interchange (EDI) system for export licensing by June 1 and July 1 respectively.

The move comes as the government seeks to improve the EDI environment and ease regulations by establishing EL infrastructure; cutting EDI transmission fees by 50% beginning April 1; and abolishing the provision requiring submission of U.S. trade document visa beginning May 19.

Once member firms comply to the new rule set by the organizations, usage of EDI, which remained only 4% of the total trade operations last year, will likely increase to 70%, cutting some 3.4 billion won in costs. The decision made by the two motor-and-brick industries, in particular, is expected to send ripple effects to other sectors.

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy adopted an EDI system in export license registration in April last year and more recently unveiled a plan to expand the use of EDI systems installed at key export import authorization agencies.

It plans to increase the number of firms using the EDI system for certificates of place of origin nationwide by August this year. The ministry is also set to encourage firms to adopt EDI in processing bills of exchange and freight bills by June this year.

"The initiatives are a part of the project set in February last year to improve six areas of e-trade, and we aim at boosting the usage rate of electronic systems in the trade and foreign exchange areas from 37% at the end of 2001 up to 60% at the end of 2003," said Shin Sung-joo, officer of trade policies at MOCIE. "Now that we begin to have outcomes of the effort, we will further put spurs to adoption of e-trade by allocating more budget for e-trade systems."

Meantime, the Internet-based e-trade system was earlier introduced in the medicine and medical equipment industries last year.