THE Pan Asian e-Commerce Alliance (PAA) recently held its 34th Steering Committee meeting in Cebu, the first time such a meeting was conducted in the Philippines.
At the meeting, the steering committee admitted InterCommerce Network Services (INS) to full PAA membership. INS has been a PAA associate since February 2008.
“InterCommerce Network Services has been actively participating in several PAA initiatives, and enabled the extension of PAA services to the Philippines trading community. We look forward to further engagements with INS,” PAA chairman Leong Peng Kiong said.
INS president Francis Lopez noted that “as the PAA only admits one member per economy, we are honored to represent the Philippines in this important regional eCommerce initiative. INS will continue to lead the implementation of cross border initiatives in the Philippines”.
A PAA night with the theme “Forum on Cross Border Information Exchange” was also held. Dignitaries including representatives from the Philippine Bureau of Customs, Department of Trade and Industry, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Philippine Institute of Supply Management, Asian Development Bank and several industry associations participated.
Guest of honor Alexander Arevalo, Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Customs, provided an update of the ASEAN Single Window as well as an overview of the Philippines’ National Single Window project. He highlighted the possible role of PAA in connecting ASEAN members, and the role of INS in providing automated solutions to other government agencies in the Philippines.
The 35th PAA Meeting will be hosted in China by China International Electronic Commerce Center in August 2010.
The PAA aims to promote and provide secure, trusted, reliable and value-adding IT infrastructure and facilities to enhance seamless trade globally.
PAA was founded in 2000, by CrimsonLogic (Singapore), Trade-Van (Chinese Taipei) and Tradelink (Hong Kong SAR), and has a total of 13 members from different countries. The combined customer base of PAA members now exceeds 150,000 organizations, representing almost all active trading enterprises in the Asian market.
