Toronto — Diversinet Corp. and Guangdong Electronic Certification Authority (Guangdong CA) have signed a cooperative agreement to work together to stimulate China's emerging mobile commerce (m-commerce) and mobile digital certificates (m-certs) market. Using Diversinet's Passport ONETM security infrastructure software to implement the m-cert system, Guangdong CA will operate the system and issue the m-certs, and the two entities will engage in joint sales and marketing activities to promote m-certs and m-commerce solutions.

Guangdong CA, a joint venture between China Telecom and the Guangdong provincial government, is the authorizing authority for issuing digital certificates for e-business in Guangdong province. Guangdong province is the only province in Mainland China to establish an electronic transaction ordinance (ETO), which provides a legal framework enabling electronic records and digital signatures to enjoy certain legal recognitions similar to their paper-based counterparts. The ETO opens the door for new mobile commerce businesses to emerge. In Hong Kong, Diversinet was instrumental in defining a single mobile security standard for m-commerce and in establishing a mobile certificate authority, jointly operated with the Hongkong Post, according to the company.

"China is still primarily a cash-based society where people rarely use credit cards but there is significant mobile phone penetration," said Nagy Moustafa, president and CEO of Diversinet. "Mobile phones offer tremendous potential for electronic transactions, eliminating the need for cash transactions and in turn, facilitating other kinds of m-commerce."

Passport ONE is a standards-based security solution for wired platforms and wireless devices, such as personal computers, smart cards, PDAs, and mobile phones-many of which have limited security capabilities. Passport Certificate Server allows the deployment of secure applications such as e-mail, messaging, secure ID, and information delivery to any mobile device including Palm, Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Symbian and Blackberry wireless handhelds. The software complies with the Chinese digital certificate standard, which enables it to be the first foreign product that can deliver a viable mobile business solution.

With the number of mobile phone users in south China's Guangdong province growing at 100 percent per year, Guangdong province accounts for one-sixth of China's mobile telecom market. China now has more mobile phones than landlines, according to recent data from the China Ministry of Information Industry. Mobile subscribers in China increased by more than 30 percent in 2003 to 269 million, vs. 263 million fixed-line phones. Analysts expect mobile handsets and high-bandwidth wireless networks to pave the way for rapid adoption of data applications and services.

For more information visit www.diversinet.com.

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