About Asia PKI Consortium

Asia PKI Consortium was established in year 2001, jointly by Japan, China, Korea, Chinese Taipei and Singapore. It was formerly known as Asia PKI Forum.

Information technology has continued to develop at a rapid pace after the establishment of Asia PKI Consortium. Globally and especially in Asia, e-commerce and e-governance have been developing in depth and have become an integral part of the social and economic life. Therefore, governments, enterprises and individuals are in dire need of adoption and implementation of PKI. Hence, Asia PKI Consortium plays a vital role in enabling Digital Transformation in a secure manner. The use of PKI requires constant innovation and collaboration around technical standards, regulations, and interoperability to ensure success.

The consortium actively works on adoption and awareness of PKI technology across its member economies. The objective of the consortium is to promote interoperability among PKIs in countries/areas in the Asia/Oceania region and to activate e-commerce utilizing PKIs in the region.

The consortium has launched many fruitful activities since its establishment, and is active in all the regional events in cyber security. The consortium coordinates for cross-border PKI policies and technology, studies the laws and regulations of electronic transactions, and accelerates PKI technology standardization and interoperability among its members. The consortium also promotes the development of international PKI interoperability by strengthening the cooperation between Asian countries/areas with PKI systems / policies / standards in America, and Europe.

One of the highlights of this consortium is the participations from Government agencies, as well as Private enterprises. This makes it a highly collaborative group working towards accelerated PKI technology standardization and the interoperability among APKIC members.

The Members

The consortium has participation from several parts of Asia including South Asia, East Asia, Middle East, South East Asia, etc. It welcomes the entities from the government sector as well as private sector. Membership is also extended to educational / research institutes and expert individuals, so that the PKI ecosystem can be enhanced with a collaborative participation.

Current Member Economies (in Alphabetical order)

Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Macao, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand

About Members & Memberships

Governing Council & The Secretariat

The consortium, which is a diverse group of members, actively encourages the members to lead the consortium through a nomination and voting process. The elected members form the governing council of the consortium, consisting of a chair person and up-to three vice chairs. The term of such elected members is two calendar years.

The details of Governing Council for the period of 2019-2020 is as under:

V. Srinivasan

Chair, India

William Gee

Vice Chair, Hong Kong

Amin Kolahdoozan

Vice Chair, Iran

Chaichana Mitrpant

Vice Chair, Thailand

The Secretariat of the Consortium is functioned by the Chairman’s office.

Working Groups

Business Application Working Group

Lead: Ms. Karen Chang, Taiwan
Co-Lead: Mr. Vijay Kumar, India

To resolve cross-domain & cross-region issues
To promote the exchange and collaboration between members
To explore and enrich the information applications & IT-enabled services

Legal & Policy Working Group

Lead: Mr. Gordon Szetu, Hong Kong
Co-Lead: Mr. Reza Javadinia, Iran

To influence interoperability initiatives
To collaborate with government and related industries
To produce policy papers and regulative awareness among the members

Technology & Standards Working Group

Lead: Mr. Vijay Kumar, India

To standardize and make technological advancements
To work on Public Key Cryptography, and other emerging technologies
To help bring technological platforms together for the members
To produce whitepapers and case studies

Member Meetings

The consortium holds minimum of two physical meeting annually, in addition to electronic collaboration. This is apart from the Working Group meeting which may be conducted by respective Working Group leads.
A General Assembly and Steering Committee (GA-SC) meeting is held during the end of the calendar year, which resonates all member views, opinions as well as any general voting functions of the consortium.
The GA-SC meeting is generally followed by a one-day Asia PKI Symposium, wherein speakers from across the world share their views, opinions, case studies on PKI and its allied subjects.
All the meetings and events are hosted by a member in a preapproved location. The symposium generally has non-member participation through an invite-only or a public registration process, managed by the host country.
A special steering committee (SSC) meeting is also held once a year during mid-calendar year.