Date/TimeBottom-Line 13th UN/CEFACT Plenary Geneva, May 2007 Report on the Development in Asia Region Sangwon Lim UN/CEFACT Rapporteur for Asia

To be Reported Progress in AFACT Progress in Regional Bodies Progress in Inter-regional Bodies Others Observations & Recommendations

AFACT Asia Pacific Council for Trade Facilitation & Electronic Business 24 th AFACT Meeting & EDOCOM Karachi, Pakistan on Aug. 7-10, 2006 with 100 participants - Afghanistan joined as 18 th member - Need for the development of AFACT Roadmap re-affirmed - Iran and Philippines elected as StC members - AFACT JWGs focused their discussions on such implementation issues as Single Window, UNeDocs, Electronic Certificate of Origin - Thailand to host 25 th AFACT meeting & EDICOM as well as 3 rd eAsia Award in EDICOM 2006 on Aug. 10: UNeDocs Single Window for Paperless Trade

AFACT (Cont’d) 2007 AFACT StC Mid-term Meeting - Phuket, Thailand on April 26 & 27, Extensive discussion on the development of AFACT Roadmap - Planning on 25 th AFACT meeting, EDICOM 2007 and eAsia Award Discussion on collaboration with UNESCAP, APEC and others - Presence of UNeDocs project leaders in TBG2 - Call for strengthening of collaboration between WGs of AFACT & UN/CEFACT Plan for 25 th AFACT Meeting - July 29 - Aug. 3 in Bangkok, Thailand - 3 rd eAsia Award final evaluation and Ceremony th AFACT Meeting: Korea in 2008

Regional Bodies eAC (eBusiness Asia Committee) meetings: 15 th (May, Tokyo Japan) & 16 th (Nov. Seoul Korea) - ITG: ebMS 3.0 issues and Web Services Reliability test - CCTG: eLogistics with focus on UCR - Scheduled to hold its meeting during 25 th AFACT Meeting PAA (Pan Asian e-commerce Alliance) - Continues its meetings and efforts for data exchange among the members - Electronic Certificate of Origin between KTNET and TradeVan - Air Way Bills and other commercial documents

Inter-regional Bodies ASEM - 5 th ASEM e-Commerce Seminar & TFAP Meeting - Nov. 2-3, 2006 in China with 200 participants from 16 countries - “Basic Guideline for Paperless Trade in ASEM” ASEAL (Asia Europe Alliance for Paperless Trade) - Cross regional alliance among service providers - 3 rd Meeting: Jan. 9-11, 2007 in France with 110 participants - New member: DagangNet of Malaysia - Observers: Luxembourg, Morocco, Senegal, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam

APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) - Two APEC fora in close relevance (ECSG and SCCP) ECSG (Electronic Commerce Steering Group) - 14 th (Sep. 2006, Vietnam) & 15 th (Jan. 2007, Australia) meetings - APEC Symposium on Paperless Business Transaction - Work on e-Invoicing, Electronic Certificate of Origin, etc. - Joint Capacity Building Symposium on Paperless Trading to be proposed SCCP - Single Window Initiative launched and SWWG formed - Deliverables: APEC Single Window Strategic Plan & Report - UN/CEFACT presence by one of Vice-chairs (Kick-off and Workshop)

Others UNeDocs Workshops - New Delhi on Oct. 3, 2007 (in conjunction with 9 th UN/CEFACT Forum) - Targeted for Asian countries, especially India and South Asia - Technical session on UNeDocs modedling practice (Oct. 4) - 5 recommendations made UNESCAP Workshop on UNeDocs for SPECA countries - Bangkok, Thailand on April 23 & 24, TBG2 presence for presentation and training

Observations & Recommendations Dynamism in Asia - Keen interest on the development of paperless trading & eBusiness - Also active in the implementation - Harmonization is still desired More Capacity Building Is Needed, But in a Coordinated Manner Support from UN/CEFACT on Capacity Building activities of the regional bodies with practical models Enhancement of UN/CEFACT Efforts on Phased Development Capacity of Paperless Trading Instruments (SW, UNeDocs, etc.) Closer Collaboration between UN/CEFACT and AFACT at the Working Level