Paperless trading is one of the important priorities of APEC in promoting trade facilitation. At the 1999 APEC leaders agreed to, enhancing the development and use of electronic commerce among APEC economies, and achieving the goal of paperless trading by 2005 for developed and by 2010 for developing economies. The importance of this issue also was stressed in the Shanghai Accord where APEC Leaders agreed to achieve a substantial 5-percent reduction in trade transaction costs through an elimination of red tape across the APEC region by 2006;

        And at the 14th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, in November, 2006, the leaders welcomed and endorsed the Hanoi Action Plan to implement the Busan Roadmap towards the Bogor Goals. In this regard, Leaders highlighted that APEC has met the Shanghai target, set in 2001, of a five-percent reduction in trade transaction costs by 2006, Leaders welcomed the framework for the next Trade Facilitation Action Plan, targeting a further reduction of trade transaction costs by five percent in the APEC region by 2010;

        With this mandate, APEC economies have been actively developing paperless trading and promoting the realization of trade facilitation. Despite the great efforts have been made to adopt paperless trading, there still exist many barriers such as the lack of legal and institutional infrastructure, intellectual property rights protection and information privacy protection to be overcome.

        Intellectual property rights protection is a key factor in facilitating economic development and international trade. The establishment and maintenance of effective, legally certain intellectual property rights regimes provides incentives to innovate and to disseminate ideas and information. Such regimes also help to create an attractive environment for investment and technology transfer.

        Under this background, China decided to propose " APEC project on Paperless Trading Capacity Building and Intellectual Property Protection" for 2007. This project will be hosted by Ministry of Commerce, P. R. China and organized by APEC E-Commerce Business Alliance.