EDIFRANCE

EDIFRANCE - Korea

Contacts

Direction Générale de l'Industrie, des Technologies de l'Information et des Postes
Service des Technologies et de la Société de l'Information
Jean-Bernard Gramunt
Adresse : Le Bervil - DiGITIP 3 - 12, rue Villiot - 75572 PARIS CEDEX 12
Phone number: +33 (0)1 53 44 90 43
Fax number: +33 (0)1 53 44 93 02
E-mail: jean-bernard.gramunt@industrie.gouv.fr

Mission Economique Numérique
64-70, allée de Bercy - Télédoc 803 - 75012 PARIS
www.men.minefi.gouv.fr
Phone number: +33 (0)1 53 44 93 56 / +33 (0)1 53 44 93 57
Fax number: +33 (0)1 53 44 92 00

On October 15th and 16th, STSI and MEN organised a business meeting - Paperless - with KTNET on the dematerialisation of documents between businesses. This followed the commitment undertaken at the seventh bilateral cooperation committee between France and South Korea on June 26th 2003.
More details: ACTION PLAN "Paperless Trade France-Korea"

The Korean delegation presented their project to a work group comprising business representatives (CCIP, DELPHI, RENAULT), experts (SOGET- IT company belonging to the port of Le Havre, EDIFRANCE) and representatives of the Ministry of Facilities (Intelligent Transport Mission), MINEFI, customs, MEN and STSI.

The KTNET project, which has received considerable support from the Korean government, was launched in 1992. It aims to transform business methods (increase competitiveness through greater reactivity and reduce transaction costs) using a voluntary state policy fully adapted to Korean circumstances. Using a step-by-step approach, various sectors of the economy (banks, insurers, customs, enterprises, etc.) have been persuaded to cooperate in the drive towards the paperless trade era, by investing massively in infrastructures.

Continued efforts on an international scale result from the Korean government's desire to make South Korea "a north-Asian hub".

Opinion of DELPHI and RENAULT

The project is interesting. In part, it meets their concerns over the need to facilitate trade.

However, their partners have already approached them to use systems of this type, which are often incompatible, thus generating management, training and equipment costs. They are aware of the need to develop this type of application but want one standard framework to avoid overly complicated systems for a simple exchange of data.

NB: Renault is launching a pilot application at its Romanian plant, with a US company that offers a comparable but more modular system.

Customs opinion

The Customs have been approached with other similar projects (e.g. BOLERO). They are prepared to assist businesses with this type of project but are only partially affected and will not therefore be a driving force.
A meeting between ASEM Customs is set to take place in Jakarta in December.
Customs officials in foreign countries "at risk of corruption" (particularly Colombia, Mexico and Morocco) would like to develop this type of application to boost tax receipts.

EDIFRANCE, CCIP and SOGET experts' opinion

Obviously they are interested in this project. They have underlined the need to fully evaluate the market as well as businesses' appetence, as EDI has already suffered some setbacks and investments will have to be amortised. They consider that the project should start from corporate needs and operate as part of a standardised trade programme.

The opinion of the Intelligent Transport Mission at the Ministry of Facilities

South Korea has a number of representatives sitting on ISO freight and customs committees. A list of specifications will have to be drawn up if a global e-logistics platform is to be created.
EDITransport (member of EDIFRANCE) should be involved in the project to ensure its standardisation.

With this meeting now over, it would appear that the KTNET project is interesting but must be expanded to a wider area, particularly in Europe. This project lies at the crossroads of several domains (supply-chain management, e-logistics, EDI International) and must take greater account of the security aspect of transactions, a field in which France excels.

To respond to the Korean request, an action plan has been attached. This includes an intention to go into greater depth with this dossier by April 2004, when important institutional exchanges have been planned with South Korea (High Speed France-Korea exhibition, visit by the Korean president).