The future of trade is digital

AT THE recent 13th World Chambers Congress (WCC) held in Geneva, chambers and business leaders affirmed the importance of “achieving peace and prosperity through multilateralism”, a conference theme befitting today’s synergies in digitalising international trade.

Singapore, as an important global trade and finance hub, has consistently been at the forefront of trade digitisation, from ratifying the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to being one of the first adopters of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR). Even as digital trade flourishes without interoperable rules and regulations, digital cross-border trade, especially one that goes by a universally accepted playbook, plays an even bigger role in driving today’s economic growth.

As the world’s largest free trade agreement covering 30 per cent of global gross domestic product and a third of the world’s population, the RCEP is expected to bring renewed optimism for greater regional economic integration and enhanced trade and investment facilitation. Businesses have been benefitting from modern, mutually beneficial economic partnerships that build on existing agreements Asean has with its free trade partners.