Project

A. General Information

1. Title

NEAL-NET

2. Status of the project
Operating
3. Implementation period of the project/service:
From
02-12-2010
To
present
5. Geographical coverage
Regional: Asia and the Pacific
Participating countries: China, Japan, Republic of Korea
6. Participating agencies/entities of the project/service:
a. Development stage
Lead agencies/entities
Ministry on Transport Logistics of China, Japan and Ministry Oceans and Fisheries of ROK
Other participating agencies/entities
Maritime institution, Container Terminals, University, and the third-party provider of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea
b. Operational stage
Lead agencies/entities (op)
Ministry on Transport Logistics of China, Japan and Ministry Oceans and Fisheries of ROK
Other participating agencies/entities (op)
Maritime institution, Container Terminals, University, and the third-party provider of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea
7. Main stakeholders/beneficiaries of the project
Transport
Shipping company, freight forwarder
8. Business process category of the project
Transport

B. Lessons Learned

9. Summary description of the project/service
a. Objective(s)
  • To interconnect logistics information systems of China, Japan and Republic of Korea. 
  • To encourage researches on logistics information standards technologies. 
  • To promote technological exchange, training popularization of logistics information systems. 
b. Business need for the project (background)

Northeast Asia is one of the centers of the world economic activities. The total aggregated GDP of the Peoples' Republic of China, Japan the Republic of Korea is approximately 17% of the world economy, the total value generated by The Three Countries approximately USD 4.5 trillion, 14% of the world trade value in 2008. The container through put between The Three Countries accounts for 30% of the world total, constituting the biggest transport chain of Asia. 

 

The surge of transport volume calls for seamless logistics information systems preferential policies for the facilitation of cargo movement between The Three Countries. However, the current logistics information transmits inefficiently information islands occur, resulting in high cost low efficiency of the logistics sector. 

In order to improve the logistics service capacity efficiency of Northeast Asia, facilitate logistics information exchange sharing, promote regional economic, transport service, trade development, the transport logistics ministries of The Three Countries mapped out blueprint for the transport logistics sector. The First Korea-China-Japan Ministerial Conference on Maritime Transport Logistics held in 2006 in Seoul, the Republic of Korea outlined 12 Action Plans, with "make efforts to establish an interconnected logistics information network between The Three Countries" as the Third Action Plan. The Second Japan-China-Korea Ministerial Conference on Maritime Transport Logistics held in 2008 in Okayama, Japan decided to set up a working group to make researches on the interconnection of logistics information systems of The Three Countries. The Third China-Japan-Korea Ministerial Conference on Transport Logistics held in 2010 in Chengdu, China decided to establish a Cooperative Mechanism on Northeast Asia Logistics Information Service Network (NEAL-NET) to achieve quick efficient flow of logistics information between The Three Countries jointly carry out related researches. On 2 December 2010, the vice ministers from the Transport Logistics Ministries of The Three Countries jointly signed the Cooperative Mechanism in Hangzhou, China officially launched NEAL-NET. On the following day, the 1st Council Meeting of NEAL-NET was held. 

c. Business process covered*

To interconnect logistics information systems 

To develop NEAL-NET standard based on EPCGlobal (EPCIS) and UN/CEFACT standard code such as location, transport status, etc. 

To develop common interface based on WEB Service with SOAP 

d. Overall architecture and functionalities*

NEAL-NET

e. Relevant document/figure
--
10. Documents and data exchanged via the project

Dynamic Vessel Schedule 

Container status 

11. Data models/databases, proprietary solutions, hybrid approaches
--
12. Main challenges faced during the project

Inefficient Logistics Information Exchanging & Sharing Service 

  • Shippers (Cargo owners) and logistics companies try to obtain highly accurate cargo status information from various logistics players to know the real cargo location.  
  • Currently, information system was linked by connecting interface together directly in very poor efficiency. Enterprises exchange information via public information platform can solve issues above, but there the information platform has not been unified yet not only internationally but also domestically. 
  • To reduce workloads for obtaining information, there are needs not only searching cargo status information from web site but also auto-obtaining of cargo location data. 
13. Lessons learned from the project

Three countries agreed to define National level policy 

  •  signed ministry level MOU among three countries 
  •  agree to develop NEAL-NET standard and interface and to exchange logistic information 

 NEAL-NET is best practice model  

  •  Few practices of information sharing for government level in logistics domain 
  •  They are sharing real transaction data , this data is sending from their user such as shipping agency, freight forwarder, etc. 
  •  Other body such as EU e-freight or US EFM is interesting to NEAL-NET 

 Establish an initial version of infrastructure for global supply chain  

  •  Develops message and interface standard 
  •  Develops exchanging method 

 Government sector cooperation is essential for the facilitation of cross-border paperless trade transactions 

14. Main benefit(s) of the project
Simplified process
14A. Elaborations/detailed description on benefits gained
  • Reduce logistics information sharing cost, Timeliness data query, Accuracy of data, and Security of data 
15. Technical/financial/capacity building/other assistance
--
16. Future plan for expansion of the project
  • Expand the scope of NEAL-NET for international cooperation with Asia and EU, etc. 
  • Support international multimodal transport 
17. Other information or relevant references on the project
--
18. Relevant document regarding the project
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C. Relevant Standards

20. Electronic message standard
20A. Electronic message standard supporting the project
XML:
- EPC Global
20B. Type of standard for electronic message applied for the project
International standard
21. Technical communication standard
21A. Technical communication standard supporting the project
WEB Service
21B. Type of technical communication standard applied for the project
International standard
22. Security-related standards*
22A. Security-related standard supporting the project
Secure token and Proxy server
22B. Type of security-related standard applied for the project
Technical recommendations from international body(ies)
23. Other Technical Information
23A. Interface developed for data exchange with an internal system
--
23B. Other technical implementation information
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