Speech to the UBL TC meeting in Denmark

[jon.bosak@sun.com]

Hello UBL TC,

Following is the text of a speech delivered by Jørgen Abild
Andersen, Director-General of the Danish National IT and Telecom
Agency, at a reception held for the UBL Technical Committee in
Copenhagen Tuesday evening.

Jon Bosak
Chair, UBL TC

==================================================================

Dear ladies and gentlemen - distinguished guests.

My name is Jørgen Abild Andersen. I am the Director-General of
the Danish National IT and Telecom Agency. On behalf of the
Agency, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to this reception.

Gathered here today are 

 - representatives from the OASIS-UBL working group, 

 - representatives from the Danish eBusiness working group, 

 - representatives from the Office of Strategic IT of the Danish
   IT and Telecom Agency as well as

 - representatives of the Ministry of Science, Technology and
   Innovation.

Welcome to you all - and especially welcome to the representatives
from the OASIS-UBL working group, who have travelled a long way to
participate in a series of meetings this week - hosted by the
Danish Bankers Association.

We have invited you here today because we would like the
opportunity to express our gratitude for the work taking place in
and around the OASIS UBL working group. Your visit to Denmark is a
wonderful opportunity to acknowledge the valuable work being
undertaken by the members of the Danish eBusiness working group,
who are undoubtedly eager to meet the team behind the
UBL-standard.

Denmark is about to harvest the crops of the seeds sown by the
OASIS-UBL working group. The Danish eBusiness working group based
its work on an early draft of the universal business language
standard. The outcome of that work is now being used in the
integration of a public sector procurement system and financial
systems across most state institutions in Denmark. But that was
just a start!

The Danish version of the UBL standard will probably soon be a
mandatory data exchange format for companies wishing to sell goods
to state institutions. Draft legislative work is being prepared
for this initiative as we speak. This requirement will boost the
usage and the knowledge of the UBL-standard in Denmark.

The next step is to promote the use and adoption of the UBL
standard across all parts of the public and private sector in
Denmark. This initiative will no doubt take several years, but we
look forward to challenge.

We are very honoured by the OASIS-UBL group's visit to
Denmark. Thank you for your hard work with developing an open,
free standard that can be used by everyone. Your work on naming
and design rules - and the UBLstandard itself - has inspired us in
our approach to standardizing public sector XML-interfaces. We are
committed to working with you in developing and promoting the
standard in the years to come.

I hope you have very fruitful meetings and an enjoyable stay
whilst you are in Denmark.

With no further ado, let us enjoy each others' company and the
reception.  To our collaboration. Thank you.