International Telecommunication Union United Nations specialized agency for telecommunications	Release
This press release is published in French, English and Spanish. For further information, or for additional copies in one of the languages, please contact the Press Office, International Telecommunication Union. Telephone: +41 22 730 6039 Telefax: +41 22 730 5939/733 7256 Internet: pressinfo@itu.int Web: http://www.itu.int/newsroom/index.html (For information media, not an official record)		ITU/99-20 22 October 1999 Original: English

Developing
Countries to be provided with full range of Electronic
Commerce services as a result of the ITU, the World Trade
Centre Geneva and WISeKey Partnership

Jointly issued
by the ITU, the World Trade Centre Geneva and WISeKey

Geneva –

The first Electronic Commerce service developed as a result of
the partnership between the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU), the World Trade Centre Geneva and the World
Internet Secure Key (WISeKey SA) was launched at the ITU
Telecom 99 and Interactive 99 in Geneva.

The service,
called the Business Exchange Service (BeX), is to be donated
by the partnership to developing countries participating in
the ITU’s Electronic Commerce for Developing Countries project
(EC-DC) to provide them with a low-cost gateway and enable
them to leap start into electronic commerce.

“As the world
experiences the emergence of a global electronic economy, and
as new e-business services are rolled-out in industrialized
countries, the priority of the Telecommunication Development
Sector is that there should be “no new gaps in new services.”
said Mr. Hamadoun I. Touré, Director, ITU Telecommunication
Development Bureau. “This new service is a demonstration of
our commitment to work with partners in expanding the ITU
EC-DC initiative by providing concrete solutions that will
enable electronic commerce to be a truly global phenomenon.”
Touré also said.

This Partnership
initiative intends to facilitate developing countries’
participation in the digital economy by establishing trust in
every electronic commerce transaction.

Delegates from
both private and public sectors visited the ITU Stand at
Telecom 99 and registered to the Business Exchange Service (BeX). This demonstrated how the service can be used by micro,
small, medium and large enterprises from developing countries
to conclude on-line sales of goods and services in real-time
with partners in the global economy.

The service
makes full use of latest electronic commerce technologies for
security and for establishing trust through the authentication,
authorization, and secure transaction of payments.

The BeX service
will be initially deployed by the end of 1999, early 2000 to
pilot locations in developing and least developed countries
around the world. The pilot sites have been selected by the
ITU within the framework of the EC-DC (Electronic Commerce for
Developing countries) programme.

The partnership
establishes a framework by which World Trade Centre Geneva and
WISeKey will assist the ITU to expand the Electronic Commerce
for Developing Countries project (EC-DC) using the World Trade
Centre network’s global infrastructure of 328 centres in more
than 100 countries. It will inject micro-transaction revenues
to the ITU EC-DC Trust Fund that will be used to finance the
development of electronic commerce infrastructures and
services in developing countries.

The partnership
is open to any company affiliated with WTCA and the ITU is
actively seeking further cooperation agreements with the
industry in the framework of the EC-DC project.

About ITU

The ITU is a
worldwide organization where 189 Member States and some 570
Sector members representing public and private companies and
organizations with an interest in telecommunications co-operate
for the development of telecommunications and the
harmonisation of national telecommunication policies. It has a
central role in the development of the global infrastructure
used for electronic commerce, the promotion and co-ordination
of programmes to accelerate the transfer of appropriate
technologies to developing countries and is active in the
development of widely used related standards (e.g., X.509
Digital Certificate).

Launched in
March 1998, the project, Electronic Commerce for Developing
Countries (EC-DC), is an activity of the ITU Telecommunication
Development Bureau (BDT). It aims at enabling developing
countries to use existing infrastructures and services to
participate in electronic commerce through non exclusive
partnerships with the industry. It also seeks to facilitate
the transfer of electronic commerce technology, increase
public awareness and stimulate the planning and deployment of
the telecommunication infrastructure.

About World
Trade Centre Geneva and WTC Association

The World Trade
Centres Association (WTCA) is a non-for-profit, non-political
association that fosters the WTC concept and develops inter-WTC co-operative programmes. WTCA membership includes
more than 300 WTCs in about 100 countries. Over 500,000
companies are affiliated with WTCA members worldwide.

World Trade
Centres (WTC) bring together business and government agencies
involved in international trade, provide essential trade
services and stimulate the economy of the region they serve.
World Trade Centres put all the services associated with
global commerce under one roof and give to businesses prime
and continuous access and exposure to all the services,
organizations and individuals essential for success in world
trade.

About WISeKey

WISeKey operates
a common root certificate service on behalf of the
International Secure Electronic Transaction Organization. The
common root certificate provides a service to Certificate
Authorities (CAs) worldwide and for the World Trade Centres
global infrastructure. WISeKey provides a high-level
certification service with global recognition and trust and is
open for use by any CA complying with its certification
practice statement.

Through its
partnerships with leading companies, it also develops digital
certification and electronic commerce services for a wide
range of international and national organizations and promotes
the use of digital certificates for both authentication and
authorization.

For more
information please contact: