SINGAPORE: The National Trade Platform, a trade information management platform currently being developed in Singapore, has won in the e-business category of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2017.

The project is led by Singapore Customs and the Government Technology Agency, and the win represents the first digital initiative by the country to win in any of the 18 categories at the annual WSIS Prizes since these prizes were first introduced in 2012, according to a joint press release by the two agencies on Wednesday (Jun 14).

The NTP will replace the existing TradeNet and TradeXchange systems, and aims to support companies in the trade and logistics industry and adjacent sectors such as trade finance. It will be progressively rolled out from end-2017, the press release said.

The WSIS Prizes recognise digital projects worldwide which foster socio-economic development across categories such as e-government, e-environment, e-science and media, Singapore Customs and GovTech said in a joint news release on Wednesday. The winners were announced at the annual WSIS Forum in Geneva, Switzerland.

The project, named the National Trade Platform (NTP), will replace two current systems. Currently being developed, it will also support companies in the trade finance sector and will be progressively rolled out from end-2017, the release stated.

“The NTP will help businesses to streamline work processes, reduce inefficiencies of manual trade document exchange, and leverage data analytics for insights from their trade data, so as to be well-equipped for the digital economy,” according to the release.

This is the first time a Singaporean digital initiative has taken home an accolade from WSIS Prizes. The NTP beat four other projects to come tops in their category.

The article Singapore’s National Trade Platform wins international award was sourced from Channel News Asia.