Korea Plans to Include Overseas Partners in its e-Trade

South Korea is planning to popularize the domestic e-trade initiative called uTradeHub among international traders, and for which the government has already approached Libya, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Romania. The uTradeHub system is the first operational e-commerce platform in the world created to facilitate paperless documentation in trade ranging from marketing to logistics through a single window online-based application.

According to Yonhap News, the government has plans to link its trading countries electronically with Korean business houses to streamline the whole trading process to cut costs and boost competitiveness. Thus the up-gradation of the present pan-national e-trade infrastructure is expected to provide faster and efficient services to its trading nations as well as its own exim firms. Towards this the government would set aside about $2.3mn every year to support the project along with its venture partner, the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).

The uTradeHub is the final product of a joint venture by the South Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the KITA. It is developed and designated to be operated by KTNET, a leading e-company of Korea that has specialised in electronic trade services.

As part of transforming the cumbersome conventional trade practices to e-trade, the Korean government had enacted a policy way back in 2001 in this regard, and as a result today the majority of Korean companies have radically departed from paper-based trading system. Today, the Korean e-commerce formula is not only regarded as the best but also has been adopted by several countries.

South Korea is the pioneer in the field of e-commerce, and is the first in the world to open an e-L/C service in 2005. Linking up of the uTradeHub system with its trading overseas partners is likely to help the country’s ambitious goal of making Korea the global e-trade hub of the world.

By Jose Roy