Press Release

Geneva, 23 July 2002

UN/CEFACT Forum Opens for Business

UN/CEFACT (United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business) will convene its first meeting of the UN/CEFACT Forum at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland from September 9 through September 13. This week-long meeting brings together all UN/CEFACT groups as a single body in a new structure to facilitate the advancement of global trade facilitation and eBusiness standards.

UN/CEFACT has been pivotal in establishing and maintaining global standards for the conduct of trade facilitation and eBusiness, in particular with the development of UN/EDIFACT and ebXML, and with the trade facilitation and legal instruments in the form of UN Recommendations. At its plenary meeting in May 2002, UN/CEFACT approved a new group structure to exploit the advances in information technology and to adopt new approaches to trade facilitation based on simplifying and harmonizing business and governmental processes. By focusing on its three principal pillars - trade processes and procedures, information, and technology - UN/CEFACT intends to deliver its promise of "simple, transparent and effective processes for global commerce".

Five core UN/CEFACT groups form the new structure:

• International Trade and Business Processes Group (TBG)
  Responsible for business and governmental process analysis, best practices, and international trade procedures using the UN/CEFACT Modelling Methodology to support the development of appropriate trade facilitation and electronic business solutions, including the development and maintenance of UN and UNECE Recommendations.
  
• Applied Technologies Group (ATG)
  Responsible for the creation of the trade, business and administration document structures that would be deployed by a specific technology or standard such as UN/EDIFACT and/or XML.
  
• Information Content Management Group (ICG)
  Responsible for the management and definition of re-usable information definitions retained in a series of libraries and repositories.
• Legal Group (LG)
  Responsible for issuing, publishing and presenting analysis and recommendations regarding legal matters related to UN/CEFACT.
• Techniques and Methodologies Group (TMG)
  Responsible for providing all UN/CEFACT groups with base (meta) technology specifications, recommendations and education. Also serves as the technologies research and advisory group.

  The UN/CEFACT Forum will meet twice yearly to facilitate closer liaison and interaction among all the UN/CEFACT groups.

Participation in the work of UN/CEFACT is open to individuals and organizations seeking to advance and influence the future of global trade facilitation and eBusiness standards.

Further information and registration formalities can be found at:

http://www.unece.org/cefact/

or by contacting:

Mr Mika Vepsäläinen
Policy and Governmental Cooperation Branch
Trade Development and Timber Division
UN Economic Commission for Europe
Palais des Nations, Office 429-1
CH - 1211 Geneva, Switzerland

Tel: +41(0)22 917 31 97
Fax: +41(0)22 917 01 78
E-mail: mika.vepsalainen@unece.org

 

Ref:ECE/TRADE/02/06