ASIA PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION
TRANSPORTATION WORKING GROUP
SIXTEENTH MEETING – HONG KONG, CHINA
NOVEMBER 1999

STEERING COMMITTEE ON MORE COMPETITIVE TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY (INCLUDING INFRASTRUCTURE)

PROGRESS REPORT FOR PHASE 1 OF THE PROGRAM TO ASSIST THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE FOR COMMERCIAL MESSAGES (TPT 01/99T)

Submitted by Australia

October 1999

LEAD ECONOMY: AUSTRALIA

SIXTEENTH APEC TRANSPORTATION WORKING GROUP
MEETING – HONG KONG, CHINA - NOVEMBER 1999

AGENDA ITEM : PROGRESS REPORT FOR PHASE 1 OF THE PROGRAM
                                TO ASSIST THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ELECTRONIC
                                COMMERCE FOR COMMERCIAL MESSAGES
                                (TPT 01/99T)

Australia

Background

At its 14^th meeting in October 1998, the TPT-WG agreed that, subject to final funding approval, actions be taken to implement Phase 1 of the program. The final funding approval for Phase 1 (US$ 67,000) was given in November 1998.

Phase 1 of this program is an electronic commerce education and awareness-raising project. It has the objective to assist businesses involved with international transport and related trading activities to implement electronic commerce systems that best meet their needs. While Phase 1 can be regarded as a stand-alone project, it is hoped that a significant number of participants in Phase 1 will proceed with the trialing of messages in Phases 2 and 3 in the event that these phases are funded.

The project was successfully promoted at the electronic commerce seminar EC2010 held in conjunction with the 15th meeting of the TPT-WG in Santiago, Chile. As a result the maximum number of eight economies for which funding was proposed are participating in the project. These economies are the Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, the Peoples’ Republic of China, Mexico, Hong Kong (China), Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, and Indonesia.

In May 1999 the steering committee for the project comprising Australia, Indonesia, and the USA selected EQUANT Application Services Pty Ltd (Australia) as the successful tenderer. The contract between the APEC Secretariat and EQUANT was signed shortly after the APEC Secretariat confirmed the availability of funding on 11 June 1999.

Participants in Phase 1 include staff in both government and private businesses involved in air and sea transport, the banking sector, as well as electronic commerce and logistics services.. A condition for the successful participation in the course is a basic understanding of relevant documentary requirements and the use of computers.

EQUANT has designed the course with the aim of giving each participant the opportunity to work through examples and real-life processes in their organisations. The facilitators work one-on-one with the participants to ensure that at the end of the course, they have a strong understanding of the issues in their organisation and the best way to go forward. To achieve these objectives the maximum number of participants has been limited to about twenty per economy.

The proposed timetable for the delivery of the course is as follows:

1. Republic of the Philippines 13-16 September 1999
2. Singapore 04-08 October 1999
3. Peoples’ Republic of China 11-15 October 1999
4. Mexico 18-22 October 1999
5. Hong Kong, China 01-05 November 1999
6. Thailand 22-26 November 1999
7. Brunei Darussalam 29 November – 03 December 1999
   (not yet confirmed by Brunei Darussalam)
8. Indonesiafirst half of 2000

According to the contract between the APEC Secretariat and EQUANT all work will be completed by 30 June 2000. A report will be made available in electronic form.

Current Situation

At the time of preparing this report (12 October 1999) the course had been delivered in the Republic of the Philippines (13-17 September 1999) and Singapore (4-8 October 1999).

• Republic of the Philippines: In addition to presentations by the EQUANT facilitators and group exercises, IBM and another local electronic commerce service provider introduced their electronic commerce solutions. On the last day the participants visited P&O and the Philippine Customs Service to see their electronic commerce systems in operation. Feedback from the ten participants indicated that they were learning a lot. Even participants from organisations who were already using EDI gained a lot from the sessions on Web EDI and Internet Strategies. The participants are planning to establish a Manila port community electronic commerce committee to exchange information and assist each other in implementing or increasing the usage of electronic commerce in their respective organisations. Such a structure would guarantee the progress of electronic commerce in the Port of Manila irrespective of personnel changes. If the participants proceed with this plan this would be an excellent tangible outcome of the course.

• Singapore: The course was adjusted according to the fact that Singapore is very advanced in the adoption of the Internet and electronic commerce. In addition, opportunities were made available for the discussion of problems of individual organisation with the course facilitators. Various presentations were made by network and software suppliers including Sterling Commerce, IBM, EC1 Pte Ltd. (an authorised GEIS distributor) and Equant Network Services. On the last day the participants had the chance to visit UPS (the world’s largest integrated air freight operator) and Sembcorp Industries (integrated logistics). The visit to UPS by participants who were mainly related to the sea freight community provided an opportunity for cross fertilisation between the two sectors. Feedback from the 31 participants showed that the course was very beneficial. The project also showed that there is still a large number of SMEs in Singapore in the transportation and related trading sector that are not electronic commerce enabled. Among these businesses is a need for education and awareness raising. The course facilitators suggested that Singapore could benefit from the information sharing if they established a port community electronic commerce discussion forum. Discussions with large players in Singapore showed the growing strength of integrated logistics, and demonstrated the significant threats and opportunities of electronic commerce for all members of the transportation chain.

Phase 2 and 3

The course has been delivered with great success in the Republic of the Philippines and in Singapore. The courses in the Peoples’ Republic of China, Mexico, and Hong Kong (China) will be completed before the 16^th meeting of the TPT-WG. A number of economies have already inquired about details for the Phases 2 and 3 of the program and expressed their interest to participate.

In light of this success Australia intends to submit a funding proposal for Phase 2 of the program to assist the implementation of electronic commerce for commercial messages at the 17^th meeting of the TPT-WG in Singapore.

Phase 2 would focus on the trialing of messages. By the end of Phase 1 participants would have trialed the use of a number of electronic commerce messages and experienced the processes involved, including the resolution of problems.

The successful use of electronic commerce messages for actual business transactions would start in Phase 3. Any further difficulties that may arise would also be resolved in this Phase. By the end of Phase 3 participants would have completed testing the use of electronic commerce messages for the transactions required in their particular business.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the above progress report be noted.

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