The Australian and Singaporean authorities have reportedly concluded a blockchain trial initiative, aimed at running an analysis on the status of the nations’ digital verification network, regarding trade documents issuance and verification. 

Specifically, The Australian Border Force (ABF), Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA), and Singapore Customs, together with the participation from different forces across the sector, have reportedly joined forces to carry out the project. 

Said project is reportedly included within the scope of the Australia–Singapore Digital Economy Agreement – created with a primary goal of bringing down the efficiency of trade between the two nations, together with limiting economic friction in cross-border payments to a minimum. 

A thorough analysis has reportedly been conducted on the interoperability of the two digital verification networks – the ABF’s Intergovernmental Ledger and IMDA’s TradeTrust reference implementation – to grasp the right understanding of the possibility for the creation of “high integrity digital trade documents that can be instantly authenticated, provenance traced, and digitally processed.”

“QR-codes embedded with unique proofs are inserted into digital certificates of origin (COO), enabling immediate verification for authenticity and integrity of the document when scanned or machine-read.”

Top-tier organizations throughout the sphere, nominally the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Australian Industry Group, together with financial establishments such as ANZ Bank, DBS Bank, and Standard Chartered, with participation in the trial, reportedly share their benefits of the enhanced efficiency of both cost and time through the use of verifiable COO’s.