The Hong Kong Monetary Authority signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the PAA Digital Trade Alliance on Monday to promote trade finance digitalisation, as part of its effort to enhance trade data connectivity along key corridors, including the Chinese mainland and Asean.
The PAA is a global alliance comprising trade single window operators and e-commerce service providers from 15 economies, including Asean member states.
The collaboration enhances cargo and trade data connectivity between Hong Kong and PAA member economies, thereby catalysing data-driven innovation in financial services and enhancing trade finance availability in the region.
This came as the HKMA successfully organised the CargoX Solution Day on the same day, which served as a platform for key stakeholders in the cargo and trade data ecosystem to exchange insights and showcase the innovative solutions in enhancing trade data connectivity to regional levels under the CargoX Pilot Programme.
During the Solution Day, the HKMA shared its progress in enhancing connectivity with key trade corridors, including the establishment of a link-up between Commercial Data Interchange and a digital trade platform developed by the Shanghai Data Bureau.
Known as "CargoX Connect", the collaboration has enabled five pilot banks - Bank of China (Hong Kong) (2388), Hang Seng Bank, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) and Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) - to access and utilise trade declaration data from the Yangtze River Delta region.
This development facilitates various trade finance processes, such as trade verification and due diligence on trade counterparts, resulting in faster loan drawdowns for Hong Kong businesses engaging in both onshore and offshore trade.
To date, this pilot has enabled the approval of ten trade finance loans amounting to HK$180 million, the HKMA said, adding that it intends to extend this successful model to other provinces and cities in the Chinese mainland as the next phase of development.
