AsianVendors.com Links Asian Suppliers & Global Buyers; Long Standing Brick & Mortar Business Brings Ethical Business Practices to Worldwide Buyers.

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 27, 2001

AsianVendors, Inc. today announced the U.S. launch of its new online business resource, asianvendors.com, which enables commercial buyers to discover, evaluate and build relationships with high-quality suppliers throughout Asia. AsianVendors is distinguished by its strong relationships throughout Asia and focus on ethical business practices as the foundation for lasting business relationships.

"As a major producer of the world's general consumer merchandise, Asian companies are important trading partners for US businesses," said Rob Rosenthal, a research analyst at IDC. "Business and cultural hurdles, however, make establishing trade relationships difficult. Validation processes, such as vendor verification, provided by companies like AsianVendors will go a long way towards helping US companies leverage their ebusiness investments with Asian firms."

Companies seeking to establish or increase their purchasing from Asia face real hurdles in identifying reliable vendors from the huge number of businesses in Asia. Quality, reliability and capacity are just as important as price. The cost of dealing with the wrong vendor can be extremely high. Similarly, vendors in Asia face difficulties in cost-effectively identifying and reaching global buyers for their merchandise.

The business solution provided by AsianVendors is its selection of reliable vendors for participation in its site based on its long-standing business relationships throughout Asia and its planned addition of a third party rating system.

U.S. president, William Lundquist states: "We have selected only those vendors that we know to be reliable and will support our own criteria with a third party rating system now under development. In addition, we seek to develop a site culture that emphasizes ethical business practices as the basis for long-term mutually profitable business relationships. We do not want to be a site for spot buys based solely on price, as we do not think that is how business is actually done for non-commodity products."

Asianvendors.com currently covers India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Macau and Indonesia, with other countries currently being considered.

"We have a proven track record of building and managing profitable businesses in Asia and are leveraging our existing relationships with qualified Asian vendors to facilitate trustworthy relationships between Asian suppliers and global buyers," said Ramesh Gupta, chairman and CEO, AsianVendors. "Unlike companies whose reach within Asia is limited or who have just begun building networks, we bring in-depth knowledge and extensive vendor relationships from each country to the online marketplace."

Site Functionality

The site currently has 17,000 products in a broad variety of categories and over 50,000 vendor listings that have been loaded during the pre-launch period and catalog sales are expanding in each of the seven countries now on the site.

Each online catalog provides product pictures, product specifications, price/quantity/availability terms, vendor contacts and contact information, as well as background information on the vendor, all in standardized formats.

It also provides country-specific information related to trade, access to trade experts, surplus lot listings, classified advertising, chat rooms for trade issues, and trade show information. Interested buyers can e-mail inquiries to the vendor with a click directly from the vendor's online product catalog, manage their inquires with a built-in RFQ manager, and receive notifications of new products and vendors in selected product categories - all at no cost to the buyer.

About AsianVendors

AsianVendors, Inc., headquartered in the U.S., has brought together telecommunications companies and official yellow page publishers throughout Asia as equity partners to provide an enhanced web-based interactive product focused on international business to business trade. Its local equity partners in each Asian country are long established leading companies that have an in-depth knowledge of the local companies and business climate. Initial funding has been provided by the Indian country partner, M&N Publications, Ltd., publisher of the official yellow pages for India. It is part of the 77-year old Tej Bandhu Group owned and operated by the Gupta family.

For more information, visit http//www.asianvendors.com.