TRADE/CEFACT/1997/CRP.18 10 September 1997 Progress of Trade Facilitation and UN/EDIFACT in Hungary March-September 1997 Source: Hungarian Delegation Status: National contribution Action: For information, September 1997 GE.1 session, Agenda item 5 Progress of Trade Facilitation and UN/EDIFACT in Hungary March - September 1997 EVENTS In March, the Coordination Office for Informatics within the Prime Minister s Office organized an IDA workshop (dealing among other things with EDI issues) for Hungarian Government officials. Speakers from DG III and DG V described projects currently underway in the EU public administration, while Hungarian participants outlined Hungarian public administration initiatives related to Hungary s EU adherence. The Hungarian EDI 97 conference was held in June in Budapest. The two-days event attracted more that 200 experts from EC providers, and EC users. It addressed issues like: World trends in EC; Hungarian overview; EDI in the Hungarian state administration and the business sector; Opportunities of funding for EC projects; National EDI strategy; ECR;legal aspects of electronic documents; EAN services; EDI and Internet;Business Process Reengineering, etc. Media repercussions following the conference helped to create greater awarenes of electronic commerce in the country. The Janos Neumann Society of Computer Science organizes its EDI conference on September 23/24. The conference deals with technological aspects of electronic data interchange and will be attended mainly by informatics specialists. The organization of the traditional EDIFACT section of the Annual Conference of the Hungarian Association of Database Suppliers has begun. EDIFACT BASED EDI APPLICATIONS Following the successful coordination effort of the EDI Working Group of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Informatics established in 1995, EDI became part of the strategic work plans on informatics in the individual Hungarian Ministries and government organizations. These plans envisage specific EDI-applications to be established in the respective ministries. The Central Statistical Office (CSO) and the Hungarian National Bank have brought their work on an EDI based exchange of marco-economic statistical data near completion. Statistical data from the CSO to international organizations (ECE; EUROSTAT) are already provided via EDI (EDIFACT). APEH, the Hungarian Tax Administration Office within its Tax Administration Modernization Project, in close cooperation with the EDI Working Group of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Informatics established their EDIFACT based experimental electronic VAT fileing system. The participants of the system currently include large tax declarants (accounting firms). The technical solution features the option of an EDI and WEB based entry of VAT data. The practical planning of the Hungarian Trade Point has begun following a decision of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Informatics. In the area of public procurement a feasibility study on the use of EDI(EDIFACT) in the procurement system of the Hungarian Government has been completed. A tender to realize the plans is currently being defined. TRAINING AND EDUCATION At the Budapest Technical University the Transport Institute launched postgraduate courses on a regular basis are in the field of electronic data interchange. STANDARDIZATION The EDI Technical Committee of the Hungarian Standards Institute is currently finalizing the Hungarian versions of EN 1475, EDI Directory D93A; EN 1683, Delivery Schedule (DELFOR); EN 1681, Delivery Just in Time (DELJIT); EN 1690, Invoice (INVOIC); EN 1687, Purchase Order (ORDERS); EN 1686, Purchase Order Response (ORDRSP) and EN 1578, Customs Cargo Declaration (CUSDEC). TRADE TRANSACTION MODELING After completing work on the Hungarian international road transport information model, a similar model have been developed for railway freight transport. A compendium of the main transport documents, a railway freight information model and a recommendation for mapping of specific railway freight documents data to EDIFACT segments will follow soon. Budapest, September 5, 1997 ----------------