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8th GBDe Summit ASIAN e-BUSINESS: Shaping the World

Nov. 9-10, 2006, Taipei

• Agenda (PDF version)
• Recommendations & Issue Groups
• Press Release
• Remarks by Amb. Colin Heseltine
• Presenters
• GBDe Business Steering Committee and Members

Press Release:

East-Asian Region Shapes Global e-Business Future
Global industry group identifies opportunities for cross-border growth

November 7, Taipei — Strong economic growth and greater regional cooperation are rapidly transforming the East-Asian region into the epicenter of world e-business according to the Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce (GBDe). Established by technology industry leaders in 1999, the GBDe today called for renewed private-sector and governmental efforts to unlock the region’s online cross-border potential.

On the eve of the GBDe’s 8th Annual Summit in Taipei on November 9-10, business leaders noted that the East-Asian region has an important opportunity to provide a framework for global e-business. East-Asia is providing a fertile ground for new online business models.

GBDe Overall Chair, Chief Executive and Chairman of Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom, Mr. HO-CHEN Tan, highlighted promising developments in the areas of international micropayment and consumer confidence.

He said Chunghwa Telecom has been leading efforts, within the GBDe, to establish a regional international micropayment system to support the cross-border purchase of digital content. A pilot project involving content providers and telecommunications companies in Korea, China and Taiwan is showing considerable promise as a means to allow consumers in each country to purchase foreign entertainment content. Mr. HO-CHEN said the project has identified a number of issues, particularly in the area of payment and settlement, needing to be addressed by policy-makers in order to support market development. In particular consumer protection, banking, taxation and invoicing regulations in different economies need to be harmonized to facilitate payment systems.

The GBDe has also been a strong advocate for measures to improve consumer confidence. The organization’s 2003 agreement with Consumers International on Alternative Dispute Resolution continues to be hailed as a blueprint for private sector/civil society cooperation. This year, the GBDe has focused on efforts to build an international network of trustmark service providers. On November 8, a meeting of trustmark groups from around the world is to be held in Taipei and supported by the GBDe. It is anticipated that this meeting will formalize the creation of a global trustmark confederation with an emphasis on information sharing and bilateral Online Dispute Resolution which is aimed at providing consumers with a low-cost and efficient means of settling customer complaints.

The Taipei Summit is also providing a unique opportunity to explore concepts and issues associated with the development of Next Generation Networks (NGN), involving the construction of new, secure communications networks aimed at eliminating the threat of malicious activity possible via today’s Internet architecture. A pre-Summit workshop of international experts from Europe, Asia and North America is being convened by the GBDe in order to advance the dialogue and discussion of this concept.

In the meantime, while the promise of improved cyber security made possible by NGN remains in the future, the GBDe has recommended a range of measures to counter growing cyber security threats. In particular, the GBDe is advocating increased for education of users, improving and speedy cross border enforcement, damage control to mitigate the effects of cyber attacks and enhancing support to CSIRTs activities.

A common theme of all the GBDe’s recommendations is the need for increased international cooperation and dialogue between the private-sector, Government and civil society. However, the GBDe believes it is important to base any dialogue on a common conceptual framework.

For this reason, the GBDe has been an active proponent of UNS policy development for several years. “In order to foster international cross-border electronic commerce and avoid a patchwork of regulation, the GBDe believes it is important for economies to share similar views on key policy challenges. The Ubiquitous Network Society provides an important mechanism through which to develop a harmonized international e-business framework,” said Mr. HO-CHEN.

The Chunghwa Telecom Chairman and CEO said Government policies in a number of Asian economies had been revised to reflect the emergence of the “Ubiquitous Network Society”, where interconnected networks enable transfer of data between different personal devices anywhere and at any time. These evolving policies are providing a strong platform for the next phase of e-business growth. The “Ubiquitous Network Society” (UNS) concept has been integrated into national IT strategies of economies such as Taiwan, Japan and South Korea and is now spreading beyond the Asian region.

The GBDe’s 8th Annual Summit also marks the transition of Overall Chair to a new global leader. Mr. Toshiro Kawamura, Executive Advisor & Former Member of the Board of NEC Corporation is expected to be unanimously elected by GBDe members as GBDe Overall Chair for 2007. Former Overall Chairs include Chairmen, CEOs or Senior Board Members of NTT DATA, Fujitsu Limited (Japan), Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) (Malaysia), Bertelsmann (Germany), Time Warner, AOL, Telefónica (Spain), Vivendi Universal (France) and Korea Telecom.