A joint meeting of UN/CEFACT working groups was held on September 28 at the UN/CEFACT Forum in Lyon to consider the work and approach required to establish common standards and interoperability for Single Windows. The meeting focussed on preparing the ground for the UN/CEFACT Conference on Single Window Standards and Interoperability to be held in Geneva in February/March 2006. Further details on the event will be posted on the UN/CEFACT shortly.

Single Window Operators from Australia, China, Korea, Malaysia, Senegal and Sweden also took an active part in the discussion by sharing their national experience on establishing and maintaining SW facilities and describing the constraints and difficulties related to international information exchange.

Programme of the meeting and the presentations made during the meeting are listed below:

Overview of Single Window Concept, Gordon Cragge, ITPWG-TBG15 Chair, SITPRO, UK

Single Window Repository and case studies, UNECE Secretariat

Current approaches to interoperability of existing Single Windows – presentations by Single Window operators

Sweden: Single Window – today & tomorrow

Senegal : Mise en place de solutions de solutions electroniques pour la facilitation des echanges au Senegal

Korea’s progress report on Paperless Trading

Australia: The Standardised Data Set (SDS) Project

For more information, please contact:

Tom Butterly
Team leader, Trade Facilitation
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Tel:    +41-22-917 1178
Fax:    +41-22-917 0629
E-mail:  Tom.Butterly@unece.org