(Yicai) Sept. 23 -- China has launched the Global Trade Digitalization Service Platform version 1.0, teaming up with pilot banks to connect companies in Shanghai, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Fujian province with trade partners from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, enabling cross-border traders to integrate trade information, payment, and transaction document flows.

Opened by Shanghai Cross-Border Trade Digital Financial Services on Sept. 12, the platform connects to the Cross-Border E-Yuan Transfer Services LIFT (Looped International Financing for Trade), a digital yuan trade financing services provider for foreign firms rolled out by the People's Bank of China's international operation center for digital yuan, and operates based on CBETS' cross-border settlement infrastructure.

Integrating with the CBETS LIFT service framework creates a trust foundation for all participants in cross-border trade, Zhu Yingyu, general manager of Shanghai Cross-Border Trade Digital Financial Services, told Yicai. It supports trusted identity verification, data circulation, and transaction depository, Zhu said, adding that key milestones of each transaction are recorded as tamper-proof evidence on the blockchain, making the entire trade process verifiable and traceable.

"Typically, small- and medium-sized foreign traders applying for cross-border trade financing must approach multiple lenders and repeatedly submit the same set of documents, with bank due diligence and credit approval often taking weeks, yet funds and purchase orders can't wait," Zhu noted. The deeper issue is the trust dilemma these traders face, with the process spanning customs declaration, logistics, warehousing, payment, and settlement, creating severe information silos and making it difficult to verify counterparties' identities and authenticate data, Zhu added.

"Banks become hesitant to lend, enterprises reluctant to pay, and buyers distrustful," Zhu pointed out.

Shanghai Shengshui Industrial bought a batch of electrolytic copper from Singapore's Yongchuang International, a worker from the firm unveiled at the recent 23rd China-ASEAN Expo. Under conventional trade workflows, the company would need to contact multiple banks, repeatedly submit documentation, wait weeks for credit approval, and then spend additional days routing cross-border payments, the person noted.

A staff member from Bank of Communications, which provided financing for Shengshui Industrial's transaction, said that after the client concluded the trade contract via the Global Trade Digitalization Service Platform, the lender quickly approved the credit based on trusted on-chain data. Leveraging CBETS' e-yuan and smart contract capabilities, the bank achieved cross-institutional directed payment of cross-border trade financing funds, the person pointed out.

Using the new platform's digital yuan cross-border infrastructure, the Lao subsidiary of a central state-owned enterprise completed a cross-border remittance for electricity bills in only five minutes, with full traceability throughout the process, according to a representative from China Merchants Bank. In traditional models, such transactions pass through multiple correspondent banks and undergo several foreign exchange conversions, including long processing cycles, high settlement costs, and cumbersome procedures, the person added.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev