YANGMING SETS UP LOGISTICS FIRM, ANNOUNCES E-COMMERCE PLAN

   Yangming Marine Transportation, the Taiwanese shipping line, has set up a logistics subsidiary and announced its move into the e-commerce logistics sector.
   Named "Yes! Logistics Company," the 100-percent-owned subsidiary of Yangming will provide logistics management services.
   A spokesman for Yangming said that it decided to establish the logistics firm and get involved in e-commerce "in view of the mature Internet environment."
   Yangming said that Yes! Logistics is the first e-logistics provider in Taiwan. The logistics company plans to list its shares on the U.S. NASDAQ stock exchange "when it has certain numbers of customers in the future," Yangming said.
   Yangming also announced an agreement between Yes! Logistics and Taiwan-based e-commerce provider Trade Van Information Services Co. Under a strategic alliance agreement, the two companies will set up an international electronic logistics environment.
Trade Van has links with Taiwan’s Customs and with several financial organizations, including Financial Information Service Co., Ltd., to run an on-line certificate authorization system.
   The cooperation with Trade Van will enable Yes! Logistics to integrate the flow of cargoes, the flow of transport, and the flow of information, a spokesman for Yangming said.
   By the end of January, the companies will develop an international e-logistics framework that will offer importers, exporters and manufacturers a service for "electronically taking or placing orders and timely managing the distribution of cargoes."