National Trade Platform to help SMEs cut costs

THE government will develop a National Trade Platform (NTP) to help businesses in the logistics and trade-finance sectors, many of which are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Finance minister Heng Swee Keat said the system will eventually replace the current TradeNet and TradeXchange systems. TradeNet is the platform for making Customs declarations; TradeXchange is a platform that facilitates the exchange of data in the trade and logistics community.

The NTP, as a one-stop trade information management system, will enable electronic data sharing among businesses and government, he said. Firms need provide trade information only once and authorise its use by logistics providers and business partners. The information can also be used for Customs and other trade regulatory approvals.

"The will be especially helpful for SMEs, to cut costs and streamline processes," he said.The system, expected to cost more than S$100 million to develop, could bring SMEs more than S$600 million in man-hour savings a year.

Banks welcome it, but consultants raised security and confidentiality concerns.

Lum Yin Fong, DBS Bank's managing director for global transaction services, said: "The objective is to see how we can transform trade finance by digitising trade documentation and processes, increase efficiency and productivity, as well as help mitigate trade risks. Banks' current paper-based and manual processing can be streamlined."

Bob Fletcher, leader of Deloitte's South-east Asia's Asia Pacific Customs & Global Trade practice, said Deloitte's understanding is that the NTP would merge TradeNet and TradeXchange into a single trade portal which will support businesses offering trade finance, and wider support services associated with the global movement of goods.

Shubhendu Misra, Ernst & Young Solutions' partner in indirect tax - global trade, noted that companies already use TradeNet for Customs purposes, but fewer are on TradeXchange as they have their own internal systems. Referring to security and confidentiality concerns, he said: "A big concern would be whether they want to provide all their commercial information to the government; the same concern would apply to NTP."

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