Australia and Singapore Will Collaborate On A Blockchain Project Targeting Trade Between The Two Countries

Both Australia and Singapore are frontrunners when it comes to blockchain technology – and they’ve now come together to work on improving their trading partnership through blockchain.

Digital Economy Agreement Paves The Way

The Australian Border Force (ABF) stated that the Australia-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement (DEA) led to this project, among other improvements to trade.

Michael Outram – the commissioner for the ABF – said the ABF looks forward to close collaboration with international partner agencies on mutual border modernization programs. As a result, we can expect to see more similar partnerships in the future.

“The ABF welcomes the opportunity to collaborate further with Singapore to improve cross-border trade between our countries. In addition to our efforts internationally, this initiative will incorporate paperless trading and secure, digital exchange of trade information as part of the future architecture and design of an Australian Trade Single Window”.

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Many financial institutions will take part in the trial run, such as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry,  the Australian Industry Group. Financial institutions in Singapore such as ANZ will also take part in the trial.

The trial will be run by the ABF in tandem with Singapore Customs and the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). The trial run will attempt to integrate the ABF’s Intergovernmental Ledger (IGL) and the IMDA’s TradeTrust system for electronic trade documents.

If the trial run is successful, blockchain technology will be implemented in the Australia – Singapore trade relationship in order to reduce administrative costs – and to facilitate the transfer of relevant documents, as well as to certify the provenance of imported and exported goods across the supply chain.

This trial fits in nicely with the Australian Government’s recently announced Simplified Trade Agenda which aims to reform digital trade by streamlining compliance and documentation procedures.

The ABF will report their progress – and hopefully, their success – to the Supply Chain Working Group of the National Blockchain Roadmap.