HANJIN CALLS FOR INDUSTRY COOPERATION ON E-COMMERCE INFRASTRUCTURE

HANJIN CALLS FOR INDUSTRY COOPERATION ON E-COMMERCE INFRASTRUCTURE    Sooho Cho, vice chairman of Hanjin Shipping, has called for industry cooperation among shipping lines on standard Internet transactions and systems to take advantage of the e-commerce revolution.
   “Without a standardized plan of internet business transactions, electronic business-to-business interaction will not be complete and will not provide prolonged efficiency,” Cho told an industry conference in Singapore.
   He said that a “standardized plan” needs to be set jointly agreed by the shipping industry and other industries. Cho said that lack of standardization impeded the development of direct electronic data interchange.
   “We should seriously consider the use of the XML documentation format as a means to ensure that we have an agreement in the quickest time,” Cho said. “With an established standardized plan, internet business development will accelerate the discovery of joint solutions between ocean shipping businesses and other related businesses.”
   Cho mentioned the Bolero.net venture as an example of a coordinated standardized approach. Over 120 companies in about 20 countries are participating in this venture.
   The senior Hanjin Shipping executive also urged carriers to establish a jointly agreed system with joint investments. He suggested that shipping lines cooperate and share the knowledge they have in their information systems and ally themselves to establish a common system for use over the Internet.
   “While we should continue to maintain our own internal systems, we can all benefit greatly by the elimination of duplicate investments and by reducing the number of trials and their inevitable errors,” Cho commented.
   Cho recommended the formation of joint working groups within the industry.
   Beyond standardization, Cho said that a common cultural environment and legal clarification are required to operate e-commerce on the Internet. Many countries’ legal regimes are not yet ready for e-business, he warned.