Digital cross-border trade trials completed.
The Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced four new MOUs and early achievements of Phase 1 Projects from the Singapore-China (Shenzhen) Smart City Initiative (SCI). The meeting reaffirms Singapore and Shenzhen’s commitment to develop digital connectivity and test policy innovations to promote the digital economy and create opportunities for businesses in Singapore and Shenzhen.
Forging ahead with more digital economy collaborations, Singapore and Shenzhen signed four new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to help businesses in Singapore and Shenzhen ride on conducive business and regulatory environments to increase collaborations for digital trade and to enable digital transformations. These collaborations in areas like e-invoicing, IoT and blockchain will promote more efficient and trusted cross-border digital connectivity, which will strengthen business linkages between the people and businesses of Singapore and Shenzhen.
In the next phase of SCI, businesses are harnessing the value of digital technologies to bring about greater benefits to the economy. The NCS NEXT Shenzhen Innovation Centre project sees the creation of three new business partnerships with technology companies in China, inking three MOUs in areas of:
- IoT and Blockchain Solutions Platform;
- Robotics Development; and
- Digital Twin-enabled Solutions.
These MOUs will facilitate collaboration that will develop new products and solutions that will support the digitalisation of businesses and industries in both cities, including the building of a trusted platform to develop use-cases in manufacturing, trade financing and smart agriculture solutions and products. NCS Group and its Chinese partners will also be building a joint lab to design smart agriculture robots and products, and to develop go-to market solutions.
Additionally, DataPost (a member of the ADERA Global Group of companies) and Kingdee E-Invoice Solution Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd have also signed a pilot B2B MOU to process electronic invoices for international trade through the Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line (Peppol) Electronic Invoicing Framework. Adopting a common framework will allow businesses in both cities to transact seamlessly, enhancing overall efficiency, and facilitating faster processing times and payments to bring about cost savings. Peppol, an international and standards-based open framework for e-invoicing, will lay a strong foundation for interoperability between businesses in Shenzhen and Singapore as more businesses come onboard and cross-border transactions increase.
Businesses between Singapore and Shenzhen can also soon enjoy expeditious cross-border trade financing transactions as the SCI continues to deepen technological cooperation and test policy innovations between both cities.
Enabled by IMDA’s TradeTrust digital utility, banks, shipping lines, buyers, sellers, platform service providers and fintech companies have collaborated on successful technical trials on trade financing using simulated electronic Bills of Lading[1] (eBLs). UOB, together with its Shenzhen Branch in China, and their clients have successfully concluded two digital trade financing technical trials. DBS Singapore, DBS China and their client have also conducted a third successful technical trial. Other banks including Bank of China Singapore Branch and Shenzhen Branch, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Shenzhen Branch and Singapore Branch, and MUFG Bank will also be launching trade financing pilots in the coming months. After the successful technical trials, the banks intend for commercial transactions to follow.
The three successful trials demonstrated how key maritime trade documents like the eBL could be used across different trade financing platforms and jurisdictions. With the digitalisation of the paper-based Bill of Lading, shipping and finance industries along with businesses in Shenzhen and Singapore will enjoy faster transactions (e.g. there would no longer be a need to physically transport or manage hardcopy trade documents, cost and time savings and lowered fraud risks through the use of digital verification systems).
Businesses in Singapore and China may seize new opportunities in the digital economy. As at 30 June 2021, the OneSME platform has onboarded 13 partners, 118 Singapore SME suppliers and 163 Chinese enterprise buyers, including Shenzhen SMEs. The OneSME Hub was launched in September 2020 to facilitate access to a large ecosystem of buyers, sellers, logistics service providers, and financing and digital solution providers. This will help businesses scale up and expand into new markets, as the platform connects B2B platforms in the two countries.
As part of innovation and entrepreneurship promotion, the Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) node in Shenzhen was launched in partnership with Chinese accelerator XNode in December 2020. The inaugural batch of 10 companies embarked on the virtual GIA Shenzhen Acceleration Programme, participating in workshops, and engaging in business matching activities. The second batch of the programme has also started on a rolling basis, with eight companies currently participating in the Acceleration Programme activities, building up an ecosystem of technology start-ups and SMEs across both cities.
