SEEBURGER Document Exchange Solution Facilitates Bi-Country Diplomatic Communications at 9th ASEM SUMMIT

SEEBURGER, the leading German-based business integration and enterprise class Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions provider, announces its technological support and involvement at the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit held in Vientiane, Laos People's Democratic Republic (Laos PDR) on 5-6 November 2012.

SEEBURGER contributed its Secure Document Exchange Platform as the ‘core content sharing base’ that upheld the entire diplomatic communications during the 9th ASEM Summit which convened leaders from 51 countries, including Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The Summit provided an important platform for leaders of Asia and Europe to discuss regional and international issues of common interest and concern, which including food and energy security, sustainable development, financial and economic crisis, climate change, natural disaster response, and socio-cultural cooperation.



The adoption of advanced electronic document exchange technology at the 9th ASEM Summit was a crucial opportunity for the host country Laos PDR to show the world that the country is committed towards leveraging ICT to improve its in-country developments.

James Hatcher, Regional Director, SEEBURGER APAC shares, “All the previous ASEM’s document exchanges were done manually via a standard, manual, email platform. This was extremely difficult as there was no traceability or confirmation of documents being sent or received; and standard email – which is the primary form of summit communication, has minimal security.”

James Hatcher, Regional Director, SEEBURGER, APAC

With the SEEBURGER’s Secure Document Exchange System in place, Lao’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) was able to achieve effective communication and secure file exchanges of highly confidential documents between the international diplomats from the 51 ASEM countries.

In a one-week period, more than 50 key documents were shared amongst the 9th ASEM Summit’s delegates and users via the SEEBURGER document exchange system.

Director General of the Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Laos PDR, Thongphane Savanphet says, “The ASEM9 Secure Document Exchange provided us with a real example of Laos’ commitment to modern technology and was a differentiating factor as the ASEM host.”

“The system is still being used today to retrieve archives of the event and to ensure complete document circulation and sharing between the ASEM secretariat and all the diplomats. There was also an extensive level of mobile technology usage, many delegates used their Smartphones and iPads to access the information updates.”

Besides ensuring effective and real time communication, the document exchange system was part of the summit’s green strategy. The SEEBURGER system helped to reduce the carbon footprint of all attendees via the elimination of unnecessary document printing.

Hatcher says, “Laos PDR is setting a great example of being a forward-thinking country by taking ASEM paperless for the first time.”

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