Geneva

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) announced today the first release of an integrated set of standards-based trade documents in both paper and electronic formats. Developed under the UN electronic Trade Documents project (UNeDocs), the International Document Set (IDS) will assist governments and enterprises in automating complete trade documentation systems and building e business and e-governance strategies based on digital documents.

"Documents are a fundamental part of our global trading system. Any exchange of goods and services relies heavily on the transmission of trade information in the form of documents," says Carol Cosgrove-Sacks, Director of the UNECE Trade Development and Timber Division. "However, document technology has not significantly progressed over the last 40 years. The electronic International Document Set will help governments and enterprises rationalise their document systems and adopt digital trade documents. We expect that it will significantly increase the efficiency and competitiveness of traders and trading nations."

The UNeDocs International Document Set is based on international standards and best practice, and incorporates existing trade documents, international trade conventions and trade facilitation recommendations.

The IDS will now be implemented in selected country pilot projects for advanced document automation and logistics integration. These pilot projects will enable UNeDocs to standardize the deployment of electronic document solutions.

To help governments and trade organizations implement the IDS, UNECE will use a two-phased approach adapted to each country's level of readiness. The first phase will consist of capacity building programmes and technical cooperation projects to improve trade document system readiness. The second phase will deliver the electronic components of the International Document Set, helping traders and governments replace paper documents with electronic equivalents based on prevailing e-business standards such as UN/EDIFACT or XML. These electronic documents are fully integrated into Internet environments, thus bridging the gap between paper document systems and advanced information and communication technologies. Administrations and service providers can enhance the electronic documents with value-added Internet-based services for the documents' transmission and security, or to bring them into alignment with national regulations.

UNeDocs has been developed in cooperation with SITPRO Ltd., the Trade Facilitation Agency of the UK Government sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry. The Swiss Government has contributed to financing the release's development through its Secrétariat d'Etat à l'économie (SECO).

About UNECE: One of the activities of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is to develop and implement global standards for trade facilitation and electronic business in coordination with the four other UN Regional Commissions and with fellow United Nations organizations. UNeDocs is a UNECE technical cooperation project.

See sample.

For further information please contact:

Markus Pikart

Project Coordinator, UNeDocs

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Palais des Nations, Room 429-3

CH - 1211 Geneva 10

Phone:+41 (0) 22 917 20 16

Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 06 29

E-mail: markus.pikart@unece.org

Web site: http://www.UNeDocs.org

Ref: ECE/TRADE/04/P02