To map out
the work program for 2024 and review the project progress, AFACT
organized the 2024 Joint Working Groups Meeting on March 20 in Taipei with the
physical and virtual participation of 18 experts from Australia, Chinese
Taipei, India, Japan and Korea.
The well-attended activity was a joint event
comprised of meetings of AFACT’s Sustainable Development & Circular Economy
Working Group and Tourism, Travel & Leisure (TT&L) Working Group,
aiming to discuss the latest development concerning the two groups. Chaired by AFACT General Secretary Ms. Vivian
Huang, the first session of the meeting focused on the Sustainable Development
& Circular Economy Working Group and featured the presentation titled “Carbon
Data Transparency for Sustainable Supply Chains” by Mr. Calvin Tsai, Director
of IOT Technology Center, Digital Transformation Research Institute,
Information Industry Institute (III).
AFACT
General Secretary Ms. Vivian Huang welcomed all delegates and chaired the
meeting of the Sustainable Development & Circular Economy Working Group.
During his report, Mr. Tsai elaborated on the
importance of data transparency for supply chains, how data transparency helps
promote trade facilitation and a call for potential collaboration among AFACT
members. Due to the global trend of
sustainable development, businesses around the world are required to comply
with ESG compliance as part of their commitment and obligations for the
society. And one of the most pressing
points is carbon emissions management and carbon foot prints verification. To efficiently and accurately facilitate
carbon management and the data exchange pipeline, III has therefore proposed to
establish a cloud service called Brain of Sustainable Supply Chain (BOSS). BOSS will be developed as pursuant to PACT
(Partnership for carbon transparency), which is proposed and maintained by The
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and widely used
in global community. For participant
lookup, it is a service to provide how exchange parties to find each other
within the IT network. So that a BOSS is created to provide these supporting
services. Furthermore, when data trust comes to an issue, BOSS can provide a
transaction log service. By the end of
his presentation, Mr. Tsai called for collaboration with the AFACT community,
including the joint participation in trials of digital tools and data exchanges
(BOSS), organization of a team to research related technical topics on carbon
emissions data exchange standards and the proposal of protocols of custom
clearance (trade facilitation) process with carbon data exchange framework.
Mr. Calvin Tsai, Director
of IOT Technology Center, Digital Transformation Research Institute, III, made
a presentation on “Carbon Data Transparency for Sustainable Supply Chains.”
In response, Dr. Liam Oh, CEO/Founder of 2PM Lab from
Korea, indicated that his shares similar visions and values with Mr. Tsai. As a climate tech company, 2PM Lab aims to
tackle climate change through sustainable technology. Since its establishment in 2020, the company
has dedicated to helping industries proceed with green transformation with
advanced technologies, and its main product line includes carbon accounting
solution, responsible AI and marine IoT system.
In addition, the company also sets up a certified electronic document paperless
platform in cooperation with Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA). Currently, there are already 3,147 companies
which join the paperless platform and it has reached the carbon reduction
effect of 10.39 million tons. Being his
first time attending an AFACT event, Dr. Oh expressed his interest in further
cooperation with AFACT members, especially on carbon management and carbon
emissions reduction.
Dr. Liam Oh, CEO/Founder of
2PM Lab, made an introduction to the business and product line of the company.
Mr. Ian Watt, Founder & CEO, NeXTRADE World Pty.
Ltd., recognized the function and significance of BOSS ecosystem, adding that
if the mechanism can be incorporated smoothly in the data pipeline of supply
chains, it will be of use to the facilitation of international trade.
Mr. Ian Watt, Founder &
CEO, NeXTRADE World Pty. Ltd., shared his views on the importance of
sustainable supply chains.
The second session was the meeting of AFACT TT&L Working
Group. Under the chairmanship of Dr.
Anthony Chien, the meeting discussed the latest activities of the Group, such
as the participation in the 40th UN/CEFACT Forum and updated reports
on the following projects: Business Standards for Sustainable Tourism, Travel
Agency and DMC&DMO Package Tour Project and API Transformation of EPs
Technical Artefacts with Sustainability Claims Project. At the same occasion, Mr. Akio Suzuki, Director
and Fellow, Japanese EC Promotion Organization for Travel, Tourism and Leisure
(JTREC), delivered a report on “Working for EPs and Sustainable Tourism Matters
to Cope with World Trend and Needs.” According
to Mr. Suzuki, P1119 - API Transformation of Experience Programs (EPs)
Technical Artefacts with Sustainability Claims Project – has been proposed to change
into API formats of EPs Technical Artefacts that have already been developed in
the EPs Technical Artefacts Project (P1082).
Under the project, sustainability claims should be first developed to
apply for the simple cases by using ebXML, and the above output should then be
transformed into API formats. He also
shared the related activities on the promotion of sustainable tourism,
including output of P1078 - Business Standards for Sustainable Tourism Project
- at the UN/CEFACT T/T Domain, further works to be done by JTREC, new movements
in Japan and the plan to propose the 2nd version of sustainable
tourism Project to T/T Domain with the support of other members of the Domain.
Dr. Anthony Chien opened
and chaired the meeting of the Tourism, Travel & Leisure (TT&L) Working
Group.
Mr. Akio Suzuki, Director
and Fellow, Japanese EC Promotion Organization for Travel, Tourism and Leisure
(JTREC), presented on “Working for EPs and Sustainable Tourism Matters to Cope
with World Trend and Needs.”
At the
following discussion session, participants exchanged views on how AI can be
utilized the promotion and implementation of various projects. Taking
APIs for example, with the assistance of ChatGPT, it has not only saved
remarkable time and efforts to adopt various APIs to the projects, but also
efficiently applied various standards to the projects.
Mr. Sachin Mehta, Founder
CEO of Stuti Tourism Pvt Ltd, joined other experts in discussions on the
application of AI and how to change the mindset to upscale tourism.
The joint meeting on March 20 marked the first
gathering for AFACT Working Groups in 2024, and members of the Groups are
expected to meet again during the AFACT Mid-term Meeting and Plenary Meeting
which will be held later this year.
All participants of both
physical and virtual participation posed for a group photo on the sideline of
the meeting.
