[Index]
United Nations body moves global eBusiness Standards forward
UN/CEFACT set to take new direction
UN/CEFACT, the Global eBusiness standardization body of the United Nations, concluded a highly effective meeting in Washington DC last week. During the week, a number of organizational changes were implemented that will make UN/CEFACT more effective in producing solutions for the business world. The Forum elected new officers and decided to strengthen its relationships with sponsors. A UN Trust Fund will be established to support and accelerate the work, as well as to build an infrastructure for the promotion and dissemination of the standards and technical specifications. Great progress was made in laying out an Intellectual Property Rights policy (IPR) and the first Aggregate Core Components Library was released.
UN/CEFACT has now delivered the first set of Core Components which are the basic semantic elements required for electronic transactions. In the coming years this library will be extended with the business know-how of the many industry experts involved in the Forum. UN/CEFACT has decided to develop a white paper for both Trade Facilitation and an Electronic Business to translate the high level mandate and vision into a concrete strategy and tactical projects. The Forum will strengthen relationships with the existing standard setting organizations and develop new cooperation.
A Forum Management group, under the new leadership of Dick Raman, CEO and President of TIE Holding N.V., will actively seek out the involvement of a wider variety of industries and economic experts.
During the meeting, great progress was made in laying out the principles for an IPR policy that ensures the participation of the software vendors for the implementation of the technical specifications and standards. The Forum endorsed business specifications for electronic tendering in engineering and construction and electronic Certificate of Origin for agricultural products, as well as new developments for the codification of business processes, such as supply-chain processes for the Aerospace and Defence industry and the revision of UNTDED/ISO 7372 standard1. It also published the ‘Single Window Recommendation’ that encourages Governments and those involved in international trade and transport to establish a facility for lodging standardized information and documents to fulfill all import, export and transit-related regulatory procedures. Finally, the Forum adopted the ebXML standard from OASIS for the implementation of the UN/CEFACT registry-repository.
About UN/CEFACT Forum
The United Nations body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, UN/CEFACT, contributes to the growth of world trade through Global eBusiness standardization and trade facilitation. Hundreds of experts are working within the Forum to produce practical implementations and standards that have saved commerce and governments billions of dollars through efficient trading. The Centre has developed and promoted the UN layout Key for Trade Documents2 (which is the foundation for the EU's Single Administrative Document (SAD)) for the facilitation of international trade as well as the development and implementation of global standards and specifications for electronic business. UN/CEFACT is responsible for the production of global eBusiness standards like UN/EDIFACT3 and ebXML4, which are endorsed by ISO.
Further information:
Dick Raman
Chair UN/CEFACT Forum Management Group
Phone: +31-20-658 99 03
E-mail: [email protected]
Jean Kubler
Acting Chief, Global Trade Solutions Branch
Trade Development and Timber Division
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
Palais des Nations, room 446
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 27 74
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 06 29
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.uncefact.org
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1 http://www.uncefact.org
2 http://www.unedocs.org
3 http://www.uncefact.org
4 http://www.uncefact.org, http://www.iso.org
Ref: ECE/TRADE/04/P07