Indonesian Customs Joins IBM’s Blockchain Supply Chain Platform

Indonesia’s regulators are cautiously warming to blockchain, with the country’s customs watchdog announcing the use of IBM’s TradeLens blockchain platform.

IBM Indonesia has revealed that the Indonesian Directorate General of Customs and Excise has commenced using the blockchain-based shipping platform, TradeLens.

The news follows several months of platform implementations, with the Indonesia Customs and Excise Department announcing that it would join the TradeLens consortium late last year. 

The announcement has seen Indonesia’s customs department become the 11th government agency to join the TradeLens consortium - of which other members include the customs authorities of Thailand, Azerbaijan, and Canada, among others.

Tan Wijaya, the president director of IMB Indonesia, expressed his expectation that the partnership with Indonesia’s customs depart will “benefit all stakeholders in the entire logistics ecosystem and encourage the overall modernization of trade.”

TradeLense records 10 million events weekly

The TradeLens platform provides APIs that allow supply chain data to be immutably tracked and broadcast using a permissioned blockchain. The company’s stated goal is to facilitate faster trade and customs verification and eliminate paper-based processes.

IBM launched TradeLens in partnership with Danish transport conglomerate Maersk during August 2018. Earlier this month, Maersk estimated that 10 million supply chain events are tracked on TradeLens each week.

At the start of February, US Federal Maritime Commission granted an antitrust exemption to five US-based members of the TradeLense consortium to share data concerning American supply chain events, with an agreement between the five parties coming into effect on Feb. 6.

Indonesian regulators cautiously warm to blockchain

The announcement comes three weeks after Indonesia’s oldest cryptocurrency exchange, Indodax (formerly bitcoin.co.id), received licensing from the country’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (BAPPEBTI).

Operating under the Ministry of Trade, BAPPEBTI oversees cryptocurrency trading activities in Indonesia. Last year, BAPPEBTI mandated that all Indonesian virtual currencies exchanges must register with the institution. The new regulations prompted Indodax to seek licensing, despite the platform having been operational since 2014.