Geneva, 29 March 2001

EDIFACT Working Group meeting[i],

Washington D.C., US, 19-23 March 2001

 "We have taken a big step in the direction of an international e-commerce language that will be used by the whole world," said Pierre Georget, chairman of the CEFACT UN/EDIFACT Working Group of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), after the Group's meeting in Washington last week.

             The growing mood of support for the development of a common language for electronic business was marked by the presence of three key players at the meeting.  In addition to the UN/EDIFACT chairman, the meeting was attended by David Barkley, chairman of ANSI (ASC) X12, and Jon Bosak, chairman of the OASIS Process Advisory Committee.

                Representing Sun Microsystems and several other OASIS member companies, Bosak spoke of his hope for a unified effort that would "avert chaos, put vendor expertise into a genuine standards process, and lead users into adopting the designated standard."

            The working group welcomed this suggestion and approved a resolution to further explore, in close cooperation with ASC X12, a way to allow a fruitful cooperation between the standards-setting organizations and the software providers.

             "If this trend continues," Georget said, "we may very well have a global e-commerce language before the end of the year."