The Indonesian Directorate General of Customs and Excise has started using TradeLens, IBM’s blockchain-based platform for shipping.

The news comes after a few months of work on the platform, whereas the Indonesian Customs and Excise Department made the announcement that they will join TradeLens at the end of last year. The customs department in Indonesia is the 11th governmental agency to become a member of the TradeLens consortium, together with customs authorities from Azerbaijan, Canada, Thailand and other countries.

The IBM Indonesia president director Tan Wijaya says the partnership is expected to benefit stakeholders in the logistics space and to modernize trades. The TradeLens platform is providing APIs that make tracking and broadcasting of supply chain data possible by using a permissioned blockchain. They aim to speed up trades and customs verification while eliminating paper-based processes. TradeLens was launched in partnership with Maersk, the Danish transport giant, back in 2018.

At the beginning of this month, it was reported by Maersk that there are 10 million supply chain events tracked on TradeLens every week. During the same time period, the US Federal Maritime Commission gave 5 US-based TradeLense members the antitrust exemption to share data on supply chain events taking place in the US. The agreement between the parties came into effect on February 6.

Three weeks ago, Indodax, the oldest crypto exchange in Indonesia, got its license issued from the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (BAPPEBTI). BAPPEBTI is running under the Ministry of Trade and oversees all crypto activities in the country. In 2019, it mandated all currency exchanges to register with it, measure that got Indodax seeking for a license in spite of being operational since 2014.

152 +