Press Release | Eight MOUs signed at the Third Singapore and China (Shenzhen) Smart City Initiative

November 2022 – The Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced the inking of eight Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and unveiled 14 new joint projects under the Singapore-China (Shenzhen) Smart City Initiative (SCI), at the 3rd Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) meeting.

The meeting saw the launch of 14 new joint projects to bolster cooperation and innovation between the two cities in digital economy.

The JIC is co-chaired by Permanent Secretary for Communications and Information Mr Joseph Leong, and Mayor of Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government Mr Qin Weizhong. These new projects will deepen the ongoing collaboration between Singapore and Shenzhen in enabling digital transformation and policy innovation, and create new opportunities for our businesses and people in research and innovation, trade, sustainability, and talent development.

Singapore and Shenzhen strengthen digital ties for more integrated trade and business networks Mr Leong said, “The Singapore-China (Shenzhen) Smart City Initiative, launched in 2019, has built stronger digital and business linkages between Singapore and Shenzhen. Despite challenges of the pandemic over the past three years, both sides have worked hard to enhance SCI as an effective platform for digital innovation, smart city cooperation, and business and people exchanges. Singapore and Shenzhen will actively promote a conducive business environment for companies to innovate and conduct cross-border transactions safely and smoothly, as we strengthen our economic recovery and resilience.”

TradeTrust One of the key areas of cooperation in the past year has been the facilitation of digital trade through the use of electronic Bills of Lading (eBLs). IMDA and Shenzhen’s Bureau of Commerce have assessed the results of successful technical trials on trade in the past year, and both sides are now poised to expand IMDA’s TradeTrust pilot with live commercial transactions involving banks, shippers, and other partners. This would pave the way for full digitalisation of the trade supply chain and bring the benefits of faster and more secured digital trade transactions to the ecosystem.

Bank of China(BOC) with a rich history in international trade finance and will continue partnering IMDA, Shenzhen Commerce Bureau and other participants to support the development of full digitalization of trade finance.

“We are pleased to see that the eBL program and TradeTrust have made such a big progress for the past year and are proud to be part of it”, says Ai Hao, Assistant General Manager, Bank of China Singapore Branch.

“Bank of China has led several successful pilots and contributed our thoughts about the practices of international trade to reach our mutual goal of the digitalization of Bills of Lading, and we are coordinating with IMDA to push for live transactions. In the process of pilots, it has been widely acknowledged that legislation is the key of promoting eBL in China, thus this initiative will set an unprecedented example for other cities. We are looking forward to witness the breakthrough.”

Trade finance is core in the entire process and the support from banks are important to achieve digitalisation. The latest MOU provides clarity in terms of legal recognition and enforceability of digital documents across different jurisdictions. This reassures industry players at different digital maturity levels to switch from paper to digital.

Sriram Muthukrishnan, Group Head of Product Management, Global Transaction Services from DBS said, “Common standards and cross-border regulatory alignment are crucial to achieve interoperability and more importantly large-scale adoption of trade digitalisation. DBS is proud to be a key partner in the digital trade financing pilot under the Singapore-China (Shenzhen) Smart City Initiative (SCI). This (MOU) reaffirms our earlier commitments to drive greater adoption of eBLs and accelerate trade digitalisation.”

Ms So Lay Hua, Head of Group Transaction Banking, UOB, added, “This latest development marks another key milestone in accelerating digital initiatives for cross-border trade flows. It will build on the good work of the Singapore-China (Shenzhen) Smart City Initiative thus far and provide legal certainty to trade ecosystem partners when they handle electronic Bills of Lading.”

“As more countries work to provide the same legal recognition to electronic Bills of Lading, trade partners will benefit from the quick and frictionless transfer of all trade documents throughout their trade cycles.” With the MOU, IMDA will continue to work closely with industry partners to adopt the use of eBLs that are enabled through the TradeTrust framework.

See the full press release on IMDA's official website.