The successful completion of interoperability trials for cross-certification of Singapore's and Canada's Public-Key Infrastructures (PKIs) was announced at the Canada-Singapore IT Joint Council Meeting today. This cross-certification arrangement is first in the world and marks a new beginning in fostering the growth of secured electronic commerce across international borders.

The successful execution of a cross-certified PKI environment will provide a protected electronic gateway between the two countries. It ensures privacy and authentication that will expedite transactions among businesses, individuals and governments across borders. It also forms a rich testbed for industry to build and experiment with cross-border certificate-based applications.

PKIs are comprehensive systems that support public-key technology used to identify users and secure transaction data. Public-key technology is used to provide for digital signature and encryption services to establish an environment of trust for electronic transactions. Singapore has set up a PKI by deploying the region's first Certification Authority, Netrust Pte Ltd.

With technical interoperability in place, the next phase of development will be defining common PKI policies and practices. It will also develop an interoperability framework towards expanding the current network of cross-certified PKIs to other countries as well.

Today's announcement is a major milestone of the Cross-Certification Implementing Arrangement, signed between The Communications Security Establishment of Canada and the National Computer Board, Singapore in November 1997. The Agreement was established in recognition of the lack of readily available mechanism for establishing trust between users across borders. It aims to establish cross-certified PKIs between the two countries, supported by a set of common PKI policies and practices.