Importance of ISO 10646

Different character coding standards are used in different parts of the world for the processing of such local characters in computers and electronic devices. (For example, Big5 is commonly used in Hong Kong and Taiwan for traditional Chinese characters, whereas Guo Biao (GB) is commonly used in Mainland China for simplified Chinese characters.) However, a problem may arise - same internal code in the system represents different characters in different coding standards.

When the electronic information is received from one machine to another machine, which uses a different coding standard, such information may become mis-coded or incorrectly displayed even if code conversion is applied. The aim of ISO 10646 standard is to develop a Universal code standards which contains all scripts in world for the communication, exchange, and processing of electronic information without the need to convert in different systems and different scripts can be processed on the same platform.

By adopting the ISO 10646 standard, various computer systems in different parts of the world will be able to more accurately store, process, transmit and display electronic information in different languages, thus facilitating the flow of electronic information and the conduct of electronic transactions across geographical areas.