Both countries are the technology to issue their vaccine certificate, with interoperability.

During the Singaporean Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan official visit to Malaysia, discussions around national immunisation plans for both countries and an exchange of best practices arose, including the opening of borders with digital health certificates that are recognised by both nations.

Malaysia and Singapore are both committed to becoming a working model of post-pandemic recovery and will be looking at using technology to issue their vaccine certificates.

In a Facebook post, Khairy Jamaluddin Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia noted that “both Malaysia and Singapore are using blockchain technology to issue their vaccine certificate. The interoperability between the two systems will be crucial especially when taking into account standards set by WHO, IATA and other countries.”

He reiterated in a Tweet that both he and Dr Balakrishnan compared their respective vaccination digital certificates that is secured on blockchain. Both countries have a traceability feature that tells you the exact batch your vaccine vial came from, which they will ensure interoperability between the two countries.

Recently Minister Jamaluddin stated emerging technologies like blockchain helped the country manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Malaysia’s research and development centre, MIMOS has incorporated blockchain technology, or more specifically blockchain-based traceability, into the Ministry of Health’sCOVID-19 Vaccine Management System.

The COVID-19 immunisation program is a critical exercise for the nation, and it is of utmost importance that we ensure every dose ends up in the arms of the rakyat.

“Use of blockchain technology will provide stronger assurance around the vaccine supply chain, as vaccine supply enters the country and is distributed to vaccination locations nationwide, thus reducing the risk of theft and fraud, and ultimately reduce wastage,” said the Minister.

The blockchain technology was also meant to help handle two key flows:

• The vaccine supply chain and logistics tracking – where the ledger can help ensure visible traceability of the vaccine through its supply chain
• Post vaccination proof of vaccination – where immutable data from the blockchain can be used to create an auditable certificate of proof of vaccination.

“It is early days in its rollout, but we are confident that this technology, as well as strong data integration, analytics and visualisation techniques will enable us to monitor progress made and make robust decisions along the way,” noted Minister Jamaluddin.

Tags: blockchainCOVID-19health certificateKhairy Jamaluddinvaccination