The National e-Trade Promotion Council found that 90% of small and medium trading companies with export records are suited for ASP. So, the supply of ASP-based trade automation systems is likely to further accelerate in line time with the spread of e-trade.

ASP-style trade automation systems available at present are KTNET's 'eXedi' and 'Baro Trade' and ReadyKorea's 'heptrade' and 'medikorea.' The foreign exchange and trade affairs-centered 'eXedi' is utilized by about 35% (4,000 firms) of small and medium-size traders.

'eXedi' is a B2B service based on e-business XML (eXtensible Markup Language) electronic data interchange (EDI). This service is currently provided to 13 business sectors, including banks, export-approval agencies, chambers of commerce and insurance companies, and about 50 kinds of e-documents are being used. Detailed content of the service are affairs related to local L/C, purchase approval, notification of export L/C, opening of import L/C, settlement of import/export payment, advice of shipping documents, buying drafts, cargo insurance, etc.

Subscribers to 'Baro Trade,' which has been developed to handle the affairs of quarantine and inspection agencies, including Korea Food & Drug Administration, also exceed 500 firms. The users are increasing among small and medium enterprises in provincial areas, in particular, as it facilitates related work in an ASP-style without any installation cost for separate EDI S/W.

A textile SCM hub site, 'helptrade' (www.helptrade.net), is presently used by about 100 textile companies. Through this service, ReadyKorea was selected as a textile ASP-supporting business in March this year by the Ministry of Information & Communication (MIC) and is expanding subscribers rapidly by providing small and medium textile firms with direct export, local export, order control and sales operation management services. 'Medikorea' also has about 1,500 paid subscribers, providing various EDI-related services for export and import firms in the health and medical service sectors, including reports on customs-clearance plans.

In addition, Korea Medical Device Association (KMPDA), Korea Pharmaceuticals Traders Association (KPTA), etc. have established ASP-based trade automation systems and are presently operating them. By 2005, 13 export/import requirement-confirming agencies also plan to set up ASP-style civil petition systems, so that ASP-based trade automation systems will contribute significantly to the proliferation of e-trade infrastructure of small and medium enterprises, which is feared to become a bottleneck for national e-trade.