The world’s first digitalised cross border movement of goods has been successful, shifting the gear towards transforming global trade to be more cost-effective, efficient, resilient and environmentally conscious.

Built on the foundations set by the UK Electronic Trade Documents Act (ETDA) and Facilitated by the British Chamber of Commerce in Singapore (Britcham) representing British businesses in Singapore, this pilot initiative stands as a testament to the ambitions of the UK-Southeast Asia Trade Digitalisation Pilot’s through a collaboration of organisations in both countries.

Alexander Cornelius, Vice President of Cargo Operations and Services, Singapore Airlines said: “The successful execution of the world’s first entirely digitalised cross-border shipment marks a significant step forward in ensuring a fully digitised process across the entire cargo supply chain.

“This achievement not only showcases the potential of digitalisation to make global trade more efficient and secure, but it also underscores SIA’s commitment to innovation and sustainability.”

The shipment utilised electronic trade document and fully digital logistics documents captured on an enterprise-grade permissioned distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform, across both jurisdictions.

Singapore Airlines, NG Transport, Woodland Group, BT Rune and EES Freight Services all played a part in making this possible with LogChain leveraging the paperless process with its robust capabilities aligned with UNCITRAL’s Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR).

Kara Owen, British High Commissioner to Singapore said: “Fully digitalised supply chains and shipments will be absolutely revolutionary in terms of efficiency, sustainability and reduction of waste.

“So I’m delighted to celebrate this first-of-its-kind shipment on the back of the UK Electronic Trade Documents Act.

“But I’m not surprised. The UK- Singapore Digital Economy Agreement has acted as a catalyst for innovation since signature, prompting UK and Singapore companies to work together on ground-breaking, practical digital trade solutions.

“This achievement exemplifies how the Agreement has enabled our companies to be at the forefront of digital innovation and paves the way for further successes that unlock the full potential of trade digitalisation.”

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