The Australian Border Force, Singapore Customs, and IMDA, as well as industry groups and financial institutions, will participate in the trial.
The ABF (Australian Border Force) has launched a trial with Singapore agencies to test digital verification systems, in a bid to make cross border trade simpler and paperless for businesses.
The ABF is Australia’s frontline border law enforcement agency and customs service. It is an operationally independent body within the Home Affairs portfolio.
The trial, in line with the bilateral Australia-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement, was launched on 23 November with Singapore Customs and Singapore’s IMDA (Infocomm Media Development Authority).
According to the ABF, the project is the first to use blockchain technology for inter-government document exchange. It is being developed by experts from Australia and Singapore at the UN/CEFACT (United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business).
“The ABF welcomes the opportunity to collaborate further with Singapore to improve cross-border trade between our countries,” said Commissioner Michael Outram. “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”.
The trial will test digital verification platforms across both the ABF-developed Intergovernmental Ledger (IGL) and IMDA’s TradeTrust for electronic trade documents. Businesses and regulators will give feedback on their experience verifying Certificates of Origin with the two systems – with the aim of reducing administration costs and increasing trade efficiency.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Australian Industry Group, as well as financial institutions in Singapore, including ANZ, will take part in the trial, which supports the Australian government’s recently announced Simplified Trade Agenda, an initiative to reform and digitise trade compliance processes.