[Index]
Turning the page for
paper in international trade
Geneva, 20 April 2005 - The United
Nations through its Centre for Trade Facilitation
and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) at
its last meeting in Kuala Lumpur launched
a major new initiative that provides electronic
alternatives to key paper documents in
the international supply chain. The UN
body thereby adopted the United Nations
electronic trade documents project (UNeDocs)
as the basis for a new, global standard
for digital trade documents. UNeDocs had
previously been developed as a joint project
between the United Nations Economic Commission
of Europe and SITPRO, the United Kingdom
trade facilitation agency, with financial
support from the Swiss State Secretariat
for Economic Affairs (SECO).
“For thousands
of years, traders have relied on physical
documents to exchange information in international
trade” says Christian Frühwald,
Chair of UN/CEFACT. “It’s
now time to turn the page for paper and
take an historic step forward. In international
trade we issue and process more than 5
billion documents every year. For both
trade and Governments, the annual cost
of manually processing these documents
is over 250 billion USD. In today’s
global trade, information is vital for
security and efficiency. We therefore
need a digital equivalent of paper documents
to process the information fast and efficiently”.
The new UNeDocs standard
will simplify international trade and
increase security in the international
supply chain through the exchange of less
but better data that integrate with the
latest Internet-based technologies. UNeDocs
trade documents implement international
standards and best business practice.
Traders and administrations can use the
documents in both paper and electronic
format depending on their needs, capabilities
and the regulatory framework.
This new project opens
a migration path from the current, paper-based
information exchange to paperless trade.
UNeDocs documents also provide a fallback
option to paper. This digital paper concept
allows a trader to convert at any time
the electronic document into a valid paper
document, if such is required.
UN/CEFACT has set up
the UNeDocs TBG2 Working Group to develop
the paper and electronic specifications
for the core documents used in international
trade. The Group will also develop customized
document specifications to support national,
regional and international projects for
Single Window implementation and paperless
trade.
On 20 and 21 June 2005
in Geneva, the UNECE is holding an International
Forum on “Paperless Trade in International
Supply Chains: Enhancing Efficiency and
Security” (www.unece.org/forums/forum05).
The event will be attended by high-level
decision makers from Governments and the
private sector. They will discuss strategies
and initiatives for security and efficiency,
based on automated and advance information.
Speakers will make presentations on best
practice and benefits from introducing
paperless trade and on how to follow a
roadmap that addresses the issues that
have so far prevented the wide use of
electronic documents in international
trade.
For further information please contact:
Markus Pikart
Project Coordinator UneDocs
United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe
Palais des Nations
CH -1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 2016
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 0629
E-mail: [email protected]
Websites:
UNeDocs Project: www.UNeDocs.org
UNeDocs Working Group (UN/CEFACT TBG2):
http://www.unece.org/cefact/forum_grps/tbg/tbg2_edocs/tbg2_edocs.htm
Ref: ECE/TRADE/05/P04