The Hong Kong Monetary Authority published the "Project Cargox recommendation report", which presents 20 recommendations and a roadmap for modernizing the trade finance landscape in Hong Kong.
Riding on the HKMA's Commercial Data Interchange (CDI), Project CargoX is a multi-year, public-private collaboration, focusing on leveraging cargo data to streamline and enhance trade finance processes; developing digital solutions to improve accessibility to trade finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the de facto central bank said.
Three strategic pillars of data, infrastructure and connectivity are put forward in the report.
They include focusing on accelerating data-enabled trade finance automation. By integrating strategic government cargo and trade data along with infrastructure, and enabling access to historical trade transaction data, banks’ assessment of corporate creditworthiness can be facilitated, the HKMA said.
This will increase the availability of trade finance, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it said.
They also suggest facilitating the development of digital trade infrastructure to enable paperless trade both in Hong Kong and with overseas trading partners, prioritizing enhancing connectivity with other jurisdictions including the mainland and ASEAN, and implementing relevant policies to maintain Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a trade and trade finance hub.
Since the launch of the initiative in April last year, the HKMA has convened an expert panel on Cargox comprising 24 industry experts, which concluded their recommendations and roadmap last month.
