22nd Pan Asian E-Commerce Alliance Steering Committee Meeting in Hong Kong

(Hong Kong, 21 April 2006) The Pan-Asian E-Commerce Alliance, (the PAA) established in July 2000, is the 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. Ding Qiang, Chairman of the PAA and General Manager of CIECC said: "I am very excited about the achievements the Alliance has made since the last PAA meeting. The adoption of various PAA services by the market has grown significantly and continuously. Our offerings for the freight forwarding industry have built up its reputation. More and more industrial players have expressed interest in and subscribed to the PAA services.”

Mr. Ding further stated that: “The value the alliance brings to the region is gaining a lot of recognition. We have recently been invited by a number of international organizations like UN/CEFACT to present and share our experience in implementing secure cross border electronic transactions. We will continue our dialogues with these organizations and look for possible collaborations.”

The PAA also welcomed InterCommerce of Philippines and Telstra of Australia to the meeting. “We are very happy of having InterCommerce and Telstra attending our meeting. I look forward to exploring possibilities with both organizations and bringing values and benefits to all the economies being involved.” Mr. Ding said.

As an another PAA initiative, Chinese Taipei has reported significant progress in its cross border electronic Certificate of Origin (ECO) project with Korea. Upon the realization of paperless CO submission to Chinese Taipei Customs, the customs clearance process which would otherwise require physical supporting documents can be accelerated, without compromising the authenticity of the CO. It is hoped that this will be a more efficient model for PAA members to adopt.

The 23rd PAA Steering Committee Meeting will be held in Thailand in August 2006.

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