GUIDELINES FOR FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY AND COOPERATION AMONG TRADE POINTS

Mutual support and collaboration among Trade Points is essential for the development and successful operation of the Global Trade Point Network. The following guidelines should therefore be applied with the objective of improving and building cooperation in the network.

1. Uniform appearance and identification of Trade Points in the GTPNet

Trade Points should use the names Trade Point and Global Trade Point Network (GTPNet), as well as the official logo, on their homepages on the Internet World Wide Web, preceding possible other names and logos. The United Nations logo must not be used on the homepages of Trade Points. The name of the Trade Point should refer to the city where the Trade Point is located.

2. Geographical boundaries for Trade Point customers

The primary objective of Trade Points is to serve customers within their own country, or where applicable, lower-level geographical area. At the same time, the basic principles of openness and absence of monopolies must be respected. Where governments retain an active role in the designation of Trade Points, they will determine the degree of geographical overlapping allowed among Trade Points. In other cases, flexible solutions should be implemented concerning the way several Trade Points will interact in their domestic markets. These should take into consideration the Trade Points' need to recover the real costs of information, including its marketing, uploading onto the network and its transmission.

Exceptions will be made with respect to the collection of ETOs (see 6.).

3. Information/services each Trade Point should provide as a minimum set of requirements

The proposed minimum set of information will be compiled by each Trade Point. All existing Trade Points will be able to make this information available to other Trade Points, in whatever form, within eight months of receiving these guidelines and upload it regularly onto the GTPNet within eighteen months. The same time-frame will apply to all new members from the time their application is received by UNCTAD.

In order to facilitate the access to this information, a standard table of contents for each Trade Point should be made available on the UNICC server. A model for the table of contents will be made available to Trade Points by UNCTAD. Trade Points will send their table of contents including all hyperlinks to the relevant documents to UNCTAD/TPDC.

If Trade Points find that the data required do not exist in their countries, they will contact UNCTAD.

All Trade Points will be given the opportunity to post their information on the World Wide Web through the Internet Incubator Service developed by the UNCTAD/TPDC.

4. Cost of information/services exchanged among Trade Points

Information exchanged among Trade Points will be free or at the lowest cost covering only handling costs, if acquired at no cost. If information and services are acquired at a cost, they will be exchanged at that cost plus handling costs/ costs for uploading the information etc.

Requests for information from other Trade Points should be as specific as possible. Trade Points are expected to respond to all individual requests, even if no information can be provided. If information will be made available at a cost, Trade Points will indicate in their response the approximate cost of the information requested. In order to facilitate requests and responses, a form will be developed by UNCTAD TPDC and made available to Trade Points.

If information and services were obtained from third party providers and are resold to Trade Point customers, they can be made available to other Trade Points at preferential rates. Revenue sharing models between Trade Points could be developed for these purposes. Trade Points in developing countries should receive these information/services at concessional rates.

There will be no general pricing policy and Trade Points will set their own prices, taking into consideration that no profit is made when exchanging information and services among TPs.

5. Public versus protected information in the GTPNet

Three levels of access to information will be established in the GTPNet:

1. Information open to the general public.

2. Information made available to other Trade Points at low or no cost. Password protection may be used for this purpose. The recipient Trade Point will not allow access to this information for customers of the Trade Point sending the information.

3. Information that Trade Points will make available to other Trade Points for a fee (password protected).

Protected information will be located at Trade Point servers. At the UNCTAD/TPDC server mainly public information will be available as the TPDC can provide only limited protection due to technical reasons. Quality control of public information should be reinforced, given its role in generating interest and traffic in the network.

6. Collection and dissemination of Electronic Trading Opportunities

ETOs are expected to become an important revenue source for Trade Points, due to the critical mass they will create and the resulting amount of traffic on the network. In this respect, Trade Points will actively work towards becoming the main generators of ETO traffic. ETO Associates (i.e. third party ETO providers), so far the main generators of ETOs, will be gradually linked to Trade Points in their respective countries. ETOs sent by ETO Associates will be channelled through local Trade Points to the network. Trade Points are encouraged to contact ETO Associates in their countries in order to establish direct links. UNCTAD/TPDC will assist Trade Points in their contacts with ETO Associates. Requests for ETO Associate status will be referred to the concerned Trade Point.

The collection and dissemination of "raw ETOs" (i.e. simple ETO electronic messages entered directly by the sending company, without any value added) can be free of charge and Trade Points will be free to collect ETOs regardless of their geographical origin. However, Trade Points in developing countries will have priority in the collection of ETOs in their countries. ETOs will be submitted to the network through an ETO switch that will later be decentralized at the regional level. Their dissemination will be in the new, EDIFACT-compatible format developed by the expert group on information and standards. A (at least) two-day time lag will be applied between the dissemination of ETOs among Trade Points and their general distribution to the public, such as through the Internet Newsgroups service established on the UNCTAD/TPDC server.

The ETO message format will include a field identifying those ETOs which have been submitted through a Trade Point, as a means to add credibility to the ETO. This will not imply that the source Trade Point has a validating role. Validating ETOs can be a value-added service for which subscribers would have to pay a fee.

Including advertising on a Trade Point homepage and in an ETO email message is acceptable. For example, the ETO email message may include a link to the home page of the company that sponsors the ETO; or, the four-line email signature could include advertising which would not directly interfere with the message content. The latter will be tested using a GTPNet signature. Trade Points will be able to sell this advertising space. UNCTAD/TPDC will draft guidelines on how to include advertisement in the ETO message.

Third parties will be allowed to locate their home pages on the Trade Point server that best suits their commercial needs. Revenue sharing among the Trade Points involved will correspond to the cost of the activities they perform (home page preparation, marketing, hosting, maintenance, etc). The expert group on financial sustainability and cooperation among Trade Points will look into working towards a framework for the calculation of the relative cost of each of these activities and the resulting sharing of revenues. This schedule will take into account the higher costs faced by Trade Points in developing countries. Meanwhile, Trade Points will work on a bilateral basis.

Information received by Trade Points through the collection of ETOs will be used in the preparation of material comprising information of a more permanent nature concerning companies and/or their products ("Virtual Trade Fairs"). To this end, a project in cooperation with UNCTAD and ITC will be launched with the objective to develop multimedia product catalogues available on CD ROMs. During a first phase, Trade Points are encouraged to collect slides or, if not available, good quality pictures of two products: furniture and handicrafts. The photos should be accompanied by a text description of the product and the company. This information will be disseminated through the network ( made available on the UNCTAD server) and on CD ROM. Eventually, these Virtual Trade Fair CD ROMs could be a revenue source for Trade Points.

7. Information from third-party providers

Trade Points will seek to negotiate contractual terms with information providers on behalf of other Trade Points, without however committing them. Once the information is obtained from third party providers, Trade Points will seek to make this information available to other Trade Points. The costs involved would follow the guidelines set out under 4. (Cost of information/services exchanged among Trade Points).

Trade Points should inform UNCTAD of their intentions to negotiate with information providers in order to avoid duplicating efforts. If approached by Trade Points, UNCTAD will accept to play an intermediary role in negotiations with third party providers (by sending, for instance, a letter of support).

Trade Points should use discretion when dealing with ethically and culturally sensitive products/services.

8. Payment scheme for information exchanged among Trade Points

Until a billing mechanism and a credit card tracking system are established, payments between Trade Points will be bilateral.

The expert group on the technical architecture of the GTPNet will work towards identifying a solution for a billing system which could be applied in the network.

9. Definition of Trade Points considered operational

A clear distinction will be made between those Trade Points which are operational and those which are in the process of developing their services.

Three stages of development of Trade Points will be defined:

A) Feasibility stage

1) UNCTAD has received an official request from the government,

2) a Trade Point coordinator has been appointed.

B) Development stage

1) the Trade Point has been recognized as a legal entity,

2) the Trade Point has drafted a business plan, aiming at fulfilling the official "Criteria for the establishment and operation of Trade Points" and submitted to UNCTAD.

C) Operational stage

Trade Points

1) provide the minimum set of information (as presented in section 3.),

2) have started to work according to their business plan submitted earlier,

3) are connected to email (if available in the country),

4) are sending and receiving ETOs.

Trade Points currently considered as operational will be granted two months to comply with the above criteria, except for C1 for which it had been decided earlier to allow eight months (see section 3.). Verification of the stage of each Trade Point will be implemented on a case-by-case basis.

10. Regional Servers and Trade Point Development Centres (TPDCs)

In order to decentralize the GTPNet, regional servers will be set up in regional TPDCs. TPDCs and servers will be hosted by universities or research institutions. Their main task will be to collect information from Trade Points in their region and upload this information onto the network and the UNCTAD/TPDC central server in Geneva. Regional servers will therefore have read/write capabilities on the UNCTAD/TPDC server, as opposed to mirror sites which are read-only sites. Trade Points will continue to establish their own servers which will be linked via the regional servers to the GTPNet. TPDCs do not offer services to the local business community.

An expert group on the technical architecture of the Global Trade Point Network has been formed with the responsibility to design the technical architecture necessary to interconnect the Trade Point servers, regional servers, and the UNCTAD server.

Regional TPDCs will be selected by UNCTAD in cooperation with local Trade Points. Local Trade Points will maintain a close relationship with TPDCs in their region. TPDCs will be funded publicly, by Universities or local/state Governments. UNCTAD is negotiating with major hardware/software providers to help equip regional servers. RegionalTPDCs will research and develop technical solutions which can be applied to Trade Points, particularly those in developing countries.

For the time being, the installation of 4-5 regional servers is foreseen at the global level (1 Asia, 2 Americas, 1-2 Africa, 1 Europe).