PAA continues to Promote Efficiencies in Electronic Commerce

Published by The Star (Economy)

LANGKAWI May 21 - Pan-Asian e-Commerce Alliance (PAA) will continue to extend its help to assist countries build their e-Commerce infrastructure to facilitate cross-border paperless trade and customs clearance.

Chairman Dr Chen Jenn-Nan said demand for more efficient cross border trading was increasing rapidly as to be able to sustain in the competitive business environment.

Thus, he said, it is the responsibility of PAA to develop a highly integrated and efficient single window service centre to help facilitate the whole trading value chain and strengthen the competitive advantage of the whole Asian region.

However, he understood that the task would not be easy as there were things to be considered such as the physical model, security and legal structure of the countries involved.

PAA, he said, was currently cooperating with APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) and AFACT (Asia-Pacific Council for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business) to promote the regional standards for electronic trading and customs document messages and a secure cross border transaction services.

Dr Chen said this to reporters yesterday at the opening of the 15th PAA Steering Committee meeting in Langkawi, hosted by member Dagang Net Technologies Sdn Bhd.

Meanwhile, the eight-member PAA serves as the single window for Asian traders and logistics service providers to exchange electronic business and government documents to achieve the streamlined and efficient cross border paperless trading.

It groups Crimsonlogic of Singapore, TRADE-VAN of Taiwan, TRADELINK of Hong Kong, China International Electronic Commerce Center (CIECC), Korea Trade Network (KTNET), Trade Electronic Data Interchange (TEDI) of Japan, TEDMEV of Macau and Dagang Net.

The two-day meeting ending Friday, among other things, dwelt on the status of on-going projects such as cross-border transaction services, mutual recognition of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), PAA portal and cargo tracking services.

Dr Chen said he was still not satisfied with what PAA had achieved and would continue to work hard to further digitise the full cycle of cross border transaction in order to improve the efficiencies of electronic commerce among member economies.

PAA accomplishments included the PKI mutual recognition framework which ensures the security of the cross border messages, the robust legal structure in ensuring the obligation and liabilities of all parties involved and the ebXML network for reliable delivery of the messages.