The Australian Border Force (ABF) has completed a trial testing the interoperability of its blockchain-based verification system with its Singaporean counterpart.
Working alongside Singapore Customs and the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA), the ABF has concluded a trial that proves trade documents can be digitally issued and verified across both countries’ systems.
The trial, which was initiated as part of the Australia-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement signed in August 2020, aims to make cross-border trade simpler and more streamlined between the two countries.
Whilst still in the proof-of-concept stage, the ABF’s Intergovernmental Ledger (IGL) and IMDA’s TradeTrust system worked successfully together.
“The trial demonstrated Australia’s capability in issuing high integrity digital trade documents that can be instantly authenticated, provenance traced, and digitally processed,” the ABF said in a statement.
The IGL uses QR-codes embedded with unique proofs for immediate verification of documents’ authenticity and integrity, replacing the days of waiting for paper documents and reducing cross-border transaction costs.
Both the TradeTrust reference implementation and the IGL use the TradeTrust framework as the key underlying tech to allow interoperability.
“TradeTrust’s approach to verification provides flexibility to allow documents to be verified not only in digital format but also when the documents are converted into a paper document at any point of the transaction,” the ABF explained.
IMDA chief executive Lew Chuen Hong said the trial demonstrates TradeTrust’s value as a framework to connect governments and businesses for more effective trade flow.
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