Jardine Internet, a member of the Jardine Matheson Group has announced that it will join a consortium with Commerce One to establish a China joint venture to develop a business to business (B2B) portal. Named Asia2B, the market site will be built on the Commerce One Global trading Platform 3.0, which allows market makers to build open marketplaces and link them to the Global Trading Web.
"Jardine Matheson believes that the adoption of a common standard and platform by as many businesses as possible is crucial to the success of B2B," says Francis Heng, group treasurer at Jardine Matheson, and director of Asia2B.com. "And we hope that Commerce One, as delivered by Asia2B, will the platform of choice."
The Global Trading Web claims to be the largest B2B trading community in the world, and comprises many interoperating portals. Each portal is independently owned and operated by an online intermediary in a region or industry, all using the Commerce One B2B platform. It is expected that eventually, through this portal, suppliers and buyers will have access to internet procurement as well as value-added services such as financial clearance, fulfillment, and information services.
Asia2B has not yet signed on a financial settlement partner for the portal, and is currently entertaining a number of offers.
"Until we have that capability for the platform in Hong Kong, it will be up to the B2B merchants themselves to e-enable their financial settlement process," says Fang Fang, CEO of Asia2B and vice president of Beijing Enterprise Holdings Ltd. "But at this stage, we can provide the portal expertise, in addition to infrastructure that is able to support links from a traders marketplace to its back office systems."
Consortium members in Asia2B are Beijing Enterprises, I-CABLE Ventures, New world China Enterprises Projects, SUNeVision, Swire Net Ventures and WI Harper Group. Asia2B will comprise of many industries including, aviation, automotive supply chain, building materials, computers and components, fixed and wireless telecommunications, hotels, medical and healthcare products, retail, shipping and logistics.
For Commerce One, Asia2B will secure Hong Kong and mainland China to its Global Trading Web. Other Commerce One Asian alliances include SESAMi.net, a commerce portal developed by SESAMi.com Pty Ltd, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of National Computer Systems and Singapore Telecom.
Jardine Matheson and the other consortium members will initially look to invest $40 million in Asia2B.
