AFACT is the Asia Pacific Council for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business. It's a non-profit, Non-governmental organization that is open to participation from the representatives of member countries and experts from private sectors within the Asia-Pacific region.

The forerunner of AFACT was ASEB (Asia EDIFACT Board) established in 1990 in response to disseminate EDIFACT (Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport) policies and activities in the Asia-Pacific region. After 8 years' contribution to facilitate international transaction within the region, through the simplification and harmonization of procedures and information flows, the need for re-engineering was raised in the 16th ASEB meeting to conform to the rapidly changing trend of EDI and EC, and to respond to the successful restructure of UN/CEFACT. As a result of re-engineering, AFACT marked down the era of ASEB in 1998. In 1999, the epoch of AFACT was officially commenced.

AFACT aims to promote the commitment and development of trade facilitation, electronic business policies and activities in the Asia Pacific region, mainly focusing on those promoted by UN/CEFACT ( United Nations Center for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business), to guide, stimulate, improve and promote the ability of business, trade and administrative organizations from members, as well as to exchange products and relevant services effectively within AFACT community.

Currently, there are 19 members from Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, P. R. C., Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam. Each of which is represented by a local organization dedicated in promoting the application of standards and recommendations, e.g. UN/EDIFACT, developed by UN/CEFACT. eBusiness Asia committee and PAA (Pan-Asian eCommerce Alliance) are the associate members of AFACT, which is dedicated to promote cooperation in implementing trade facilitation and eCommerce in this region.

There are 11 Working Groups formed under AFACT, of which each with its own scope of work and responsibilities. The Working Groups are Awareness and Education Working Group(AEG), Financial Working Group(FWG), Transportation Working Group(TWG), Customs Working Group(CWG), Supply Chain Working Group(SCWG=PWG+ECWG), Security Working Group(SWG), Air Transportation Working Group(ATG), Legal Working Group(LWG), Inter-networking Implementation Committee(IIC), Business collaboration Framework Working Group(BCFWG), XML Working Group(XMLWG).

The major activities include:

1.Analyzing and understanding the key elements of international transactions and working for the elimination of constraints;

2. Developing methods to facilitate transactions, including the relevant use of information technologies such as UN/EDIFACT and ebXML;

3. Promoting both the use of these methods, and associated best practices, through channels such as government, industry and service associations;

4. Coordinating its work with UN/CEFACT and other relevant international, regional and non-governmental organizations; and

5. Enhancing the cooperation among the AFACT members and promoting the objectives of the mission statement in the Asia Pacific region.

To know more about AFACT visit the website http://www.afact.org