🚀 go-pugleaf

Here is the 8/6/92 article from the Columbus Dispatch on the
info-port. It was on pages 1A and 2A.

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Columbus chosen as `info-port'

o The United Nations chose the city to help pioneer a network using
computers to simplify trade.

By Barbara Carmen
Dispatch City Hall Reporter

Columbus has gained a huge edge to become a player in world trade,
political and businesses leaders announced yesterday.

The United Nations has chosen the city as the only site in North
America to pioneer a network that uses computers to simplify trade.

The Electronic Data Interchange network eliminates paperwork and
translates orders into other languages.  Basing it here will turn
Columbus into an "info-port" where other cities will come to do business.

"This will have a tremendous ripple effect on our economy," said state
Sen. Eugene J. Watts, R-Galloway. "It's almost impossible to
exaggerate the significance of what's happening."

Many details about the network -- such as its cost and who will pay
for it -- are to be worked out by a task force being set up by Mayor
Greg Lashutka and the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce.

What is clear is this:

o Columbus is one of 16 cities being designated as a "trade-point
center" by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development. Columbus was
the second center chosen after Cateagena, Colombia; more than 70
cities around the globe are competing for the remaining 14 slots.

The trade-point centers will become laboratories, testing new trade
procedures and communication technologies.

The centers were described as one-stop shopping centers for all the
processes involved in foreign trade.

For instance, if business owners in Duluth, Minn., wanted to sell a
product to a customer in Mexico City, they call call the Columbus
service center and get referrals to banks, insurance companies and
other businesses tied into the network that could handle the
transaction.

o The network will eliminate the complicated and costly chore of
filling out stacks of purchase orders, invoices, bills of lading,
customs declarations and payments.

The United Nations found the normal maritime carrier docks with nearly
500 pounds of paperwork for its cargo.  The network, if used
worldwide, would save an estimated $70 billion each year.

o After two years, representatives from the 16 pilot sites will
compare notes to help expand the system.

"Our early participation will allow Columbus to emerge as an important
gateway to the world," Lashutka said.

He noted that Columbus is already an info-port with such companies as
CompuServe, Sterling Software/Ordernet, Chemical Abstracts, and the
Online Computer Library Center.

The city also has Ohio State University, and Ohio is the fourth
biggest exporting state in the United States, officials said.  Some
corporations have signed up already to be part of the network.

The mayor expects a partnership of private businesses and government
to pick up costs.  The trade-point center in Cartegna, Colombia, cost
$40,000 to set up and cut the cost of international trade by 40
percent for businesses.  Malaysia is looking as spending $20 million
for a national network.

Talks to lure the center to Columbus have been going on quietly for
months.

"Clearly, being chosen puts Columbus in a position to be a key player
in international trade," said chamber President Jonathan York.  "Where
before you had to be accessible to deep water and a port, now trade
depends on being accessible to information and the ability to move
that information."

The center gives Columbus a jump on the future, said Jeffrey B.
Ritter, a Columbus lawyer who is legal adviser to the U.N. in Europe.

"Columbus, as an inland, info-port, will show how to shatter the
traditional barriers to trade -- geographical, cultural and language
barriers." said Ritter.

Big businesses, including Victoria's Secret, Ross Laboratories, and
Honda, are already using Electronic Data Interchange.  But setting up
a central network will allow smaller businesses to improve trade and
save money, Lashutka said.

The center will give local businesses a boost, officials said.
Callers from other cities can be connected with myriad banks,
insurance companies, software vendors and other businesses that will
use the system.

It could also give Columbus an edge on getting a proposed state
international trade center, they said.

Lawrence Eagleburger, acting U.S. secretary of state, said in a letter
to Lashutka that, "You are positioning Columbus to become a leader in
global trading in the next centure."