25 August 2006: 23rd Pan Asian E-Commerce Alliance Steering Committee Meeting in Bangkok

The 23rd PAA Steering Committee meeting was held in Bangkok from 24th to 25th August 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 pleased with the continuous growth on the demand and adoption of the PAA services. Since the last PAA meeting, both the number of new recruitment and the transaction volume of our services have reached record-high. Our offerings for the freight forwarding industry are fast becoming one of the most popular secure electronic cross border solutions in the market. I look forward to seeing the alliance making more and more contributions to the supply chain and the logistics industries.” 

Senior Advisor of CAT Telecom, Mr. Pakkaporn Sathienpakiranakorn expressed his warm welcome to all the PAA members and showed his full support to the PAA regional cooperation. “As one of its members, we believe that PAA provides an excellent platform for collaborations. As such, it comes to no surprise that the Alliance has increasingly gained recognition from the industry and international arena.” said Mr. Sathienpakiranakorn.

Mr. Sathienpakiranakorn also informed the gathering about the latest development on the “ASEAN Single Window” initiative driven by the Customs Department of the Royal Thai Government. It is the Government’s ultimate aim to, leveraging the establishment of the Single Window, promote trade facilitation between Thailand and its fellow economies. CAT Telecom, being a major player of the initiative, is making use of the experience it has gained through its participation in PAA, to bring more values to this Government project. 

PAA has made further progress in its cross border Electronic Certificate of Origin (ECO) project. With the support from the Customs Authorities of the respective economies, Chinese Taipei and Korea plan to launch the first ECO pilot project of its kind towards the end of the year. It is anticipated that more and more PAA members will soon join force to provide the ECO service to the economies they represent. Upon the realization of this ECO project, both the industry and the related Customs Authorities will benefit.

The 24th PAA Steering Committee Meeting will be held in Hainan, China in December 2006.