Yesterday, enterprise blockchain TradeLens announced that the Indonesia Customs and Excise Department joined its shipping platform after announcing its intention late last year.
The Indonesia Customs and Excise Department is at least the third government agency in Southeast Asia to use the platform.
Developed jointly by IBM and Maersk, TradeLens is using blockchain to digitize the container shipping industry and enable transparency in the container supply chain.
The solution uses IoT devices to record temperature, container weight, and other physical aspects of shipping. The goal is to eliminate paper-based processes and speed up trade and customs verification. The platform boasts five of the top six ocean carriers as members, who represent over half of the world’s container cargo capacity.
Meanwhile, the Indonesia Customs and Excise Department has joined the platform to expand its National Logistic Ecosystem (NLE), which will allow stakeholders in the logistics sector to collaborate effectively. The department is planning to use Tradelens as part of a system called CEISA 4.0 (Customs Excise Information System and Automation) to connect importers, exporters, and logistics providers.
Now, by leveraging TradeLens, it will be able to receive shipping data in near real-time. It would potentially eliminate fraud and forgery and provide better data collection.
“With the Collaboration Application Programing Interface [API] concept, all logistics activities including trucking, warehousing, shipping and freight forwarding at both domestic and global levels can now be brought together and shared through a single platform — TradeLens,” said Deni Sujantoro, Head of Communications and Publications for the Custom and Excise Office.
Other Southeast Asian government agencies to join TradeLens include Thailand and Singapore customs. Elsewhere, Canadian, Saudi, and Jordan customs have integrated with the TradeLens platform.
Over the past year, Ledger Insights has reported on several shipping agencies, port authorities, government authorities, and ocean carriers joining the Tradelens platform.
Another major shipping blockchain is the Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) consortium, which includes three of the largest five container carriers. In terms of container shipper members, there is some overlap between GSBN and TradeLens.
