E-Commerce Boosted As Certification Authorities Of Hong Kong And Korea Join Forces

Mary Swire, Tax-news.com, Hong Kong

22 March 2001

Hong Kong's certification authority, the Hongkong Post, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Korea Information Certificate Authority to establish a framework of cross-border cooperation for issuing digital certificates.

In a statement released by the Hongkong Post, Mr Allan Chiang, Acting Postmaster General, said: 'we are delighted to have signed the MOU with Korea Information Certificate Authority. We have signed similar MOUs with ID.Safe of Singapore, DigiCert of Malaysia and ViaCode of the United Kingdom. This kind of cross-border co-operation to develop a widely recognised Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) system will enhance our position as a leading Internet hub and help promote e-commerce in the region.'

The MOU will enable both organisations to create policies concerning digital certificates, promote an open and seamless infrastructure, and develop open PKI based applications to facilitate secure cross-border transactions over the Internet.

Since January of last year the Hongkong Post has operated as the first territory's first publicly recognised Certificate Authority as a 'digital certificate repository to allow the public to verify the validity of the digital certificates.' The digital certificate issued by Hongkong Post, officially known as the e-Cert, provides a secure and trusted e-commerce environment in which Internet users can authenticate the identity of the digital certificate holders online.

Mr Chiang added that the Hongkong Post aims to join up with other certification authorities across the globe. He said: 'Hongkong Post will continue to explore opportunities to enlist more appropriate partners to promote cross-border co-operation for the benefit of digital certificate users around the world.'

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