Ecquaria and World Bank in partnership to help Mexican government deliver electronic government services

Singapore (4 Sept 2002) - Ecquaria Limited (www.ecquaria.com), leader in Web Services infrastructure software and solutions, today announced that the World Bank Group has selected Ecquaria and its Ecquaria Service-Oriented Platform™ (Ecquaria SOP™) for a Mexican EGovernment project. The World Bank Mexico Urban Micro Business Project involves the implementation of an EGovernment service delivery infrastructure for Mexican municipalities. Through this infrastructure, it will provide the Mexican Micro and Small Businesses (MSBs) with convenient access to electronic government services associated with business registration and procurement.

MSBs account for 13% of Mexico's GDP in 1997 and are one of the most important sources of employment in Mexico today. The Mexico Urban Micro Business Project in partnership with Ecquaria aims to reduce the barriers to MSB's business formation and operations so as to accelerate their growth and competitiveness. Following the improved business climate for MSBs, the World Bank and the Mexican government can look forward to newly created employment opportunities and poverty reduction.

The project will leverage on Ecquaria's ready EGovernment solution - Ecquaria Service-Oriented Platform™ (Ecquaria SOP™) that comprises common key features of an EGovernment infrastructure. With the Ecquaria SOP™, Mexican government agencies or appointed vendors are able to develop and deploy electronic services rapidly, securely and efficiently to MSBs and the public with a single infrastructure. Ecquaria will build capabilities that enable MSBs to have round-the-clock and convenient access to online resources and government transactions including business registration, procurement procedures, application processes, financing possibilities and online contract submission.

The EGovernment infrastructure designed and implemented by Ecquaria will be closely aligned with Mexico's EGovernment initiative to:

• Simplify and coordinate government services,
• Increase transparency,
• Automate efficient interactions with the public and business community and;
• Improve business climate in the country

The Ecquaria SOP™ provides ready, customizable EGovernment features such as electronic payment, security, user profile management, electronic data exchange, multi-channel delivery, webflow, system management console and web services deployment wizard for efficient public service delivery. It is a tried and tested EGovernment infrastructure developed and implemented for the Singapore government.

Different government agencies are able to share the re-useable features of Ecquaria SOP™ instead of rebuilding them for each new service. This reduces both incremental cost for new service implementation and time for design and development of services. The open standards-based infrastructure provides easy integration to any technology or systems and future-proof existing technology investments.

"We are excited to be pioneering such a system in Mexico to help the MSBs realize their full potential. The aid of the World Bank in bringing the Ecquaria SOP™ which has many EGovernment best practices built-in will dramatically reduce the cost of building and operating services and lower the risks involved," said James Hanna, Principal Operations Officer, World Bank.

"We are very pleased to partner Ecquaria on this important Mexican E-Government initiative," James Hanna, Principal Operations Officer, World Bank said. "Our vision is to reduce poverty and improve living standards in the developing world. This is why we view the new partnership with Ecquaria as a key element to fight against poverty, improve government operations and make Mexico an easy nation to do and grow a business."

"By selecting the Ecquaria SOP™, the Mexican government demonstrates its commitment to making the government more accessible to the public," said Paul Leong, Vice President, Business Development, Ecquaria Technologies. "In a wired government, the ultimate success is about establishing and maintaining effective relationships. Ecquaria SOP™ improves relationships with vendors, distributors and customers who conduct transactions and services over the Internet. "

"Ecquaria SOP™ is an immediate solution for governments in the world that are launching electronic government. By leveraging on the ready features that Ecquaria SOP™ provides, they can reap the fruits in less time. At Ecquaria, we have shown that a truly integrated and invisible electronic government that unites citizens and businesses is a reality that is achievable today," Leong added.

About Ecquaria Service-Oriented Platform™

Ecquaria Service-Oriented Platform™ (Ecquaria SOP™) is a fully J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) compliant software infrastructure. It is designed to enable governments and enterprises worldwide to deliver customer-centric electronic services to internal or external users over a variety of channels. Ecquaria SOP™ provides integrated Web Services development, management and deployment to rapidly implement scalable and cross-platform Web Services. Built on open standards, Ecquaria SOP™ supports Web Services standards UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and WSDL (Web Services Description Language) to deliver significant results. It provides ready EGovernment features and encompasses the best practices of an EGovernment infrastructure.

About Ecquaria Limited
Ecquaria empowers governments to meet the dynamic challenges of serving the public to deliver quality service delivery, communicate and collaborate with the public and business community. Based on cutting edge technology and incorporated with best practices, Ecquaria SOP™ is instrumental in EGovernment initiative to simplify and coordinate government services and automate efficient transactions with the public and business community. Ecquaria's key strength lies in EGovernment - enabling the business of the Government to provide highest levels of satisfaction to public users. Ecquaria has global presence and support in Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, U.S. and Europe. More information about Ecquaria is available at www.ecquaria.com or email pr@ecquaria.com.