PSA International has teamed up with a unit of CrimsonLogic to develop a global common trade and supply chain platform.
PSA and the CrimsonLogic unit, Global eTrade Services (GeTS), have pulled in DBS Bank as a strategic partner to lend trade financing muscle to the new platform, which is called Calista.
As the owner of Calista, GeTS is funding the first major phase of development, estimated to cost $20 million. Calista will be built progressively, with its first product being open now for trials.
The business-to-business and business-to-government platform is being positioned as a one-stop shop for those in the global trade and supply chain.
It is believed that early users can tap several offerings from PSA, GeTS and DBS, including cross-border compliance services, cargo freight booking systems and trade-related financing solutions.
One aim is to allow a user to tap the single platform, not just for tracking but also to increase the efficiency of trading goods.
This can be achieved, for instance, by digitalising and cutting the volume of paperwork, reducing the time taken to clear Customs, and shaving financing costs to import or export goods.
PSA chief executive Tan Chong Meng said: "Calista will be instrumental in fostering closer collaboration among manufacturers, logistic service providers and other stakeholders of the global supply chain.
"It will benefit from the strong synergies between PSA's domain knowledge and physical assets and GeTS' capabilities in digital trade connectivity services."
Mr Eugene Wong, chairman of CrimsonLogic and GeTS, said that Calista is being built on an "open architecture".
This means that while the early partners lay the building blocks, the platform improves as more players in the global trade and supply chain come on board.
DBS CEO Piyush Gupta said the bank is "honoured" to support the digitalisation of the shipping and logistics industries.
"With cross-border trade growing and Asian enterprises doing more business internationally, Singapore is well placed to lead the charge in digitalising trade financing solutions," he added.
