Fifteen public and private organizations from the financial, telecommunication, postal, academic and technology sectors have come together to form an alliance to develop mobile electronic services across Asia.

Led by the Standard Chartered Bank, the 'Asia Mobile Electronic Services Alliance' (AMESA) will be the first partnership to harness the power of the smart card, mobile phone, Public Key Infrastructure and open standard. With this innovative combination, the alliance will build an infrastructure to support secure mobile electronic services in Hong Kong, Singapore and other Asian markets.

AMESA also plans to produce, by next year, a bank card which enables customers to access a whole range of electronic services including banking, E-commerce, bill payment and trading information, regardless of time or place.

Academic partners including the OUHK, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the National University of Singapore, will conduct the research and development and market surveys, and run pilot tests on their campuses.

Other major partners are Ericsson, Gemplus Technologies, Hong Kong Post, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, SingTel Mobile, SingNet, Singapore Post, SmarTone and Visa International.