A. General Information
2. Implementation period of the project/service:
4. Geographical coverage
Global
Participating countries: Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand
Hub Point: Japan
5. Participating agencies/entities of the project/service:
a. Development stage
Lead agencies/entities
NTT DATA Corporation
Other participating agencies/entities
Toyota Tsusho Corporation, UTokyo Innovation Platform Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi Corporation
b. Operational stage
Lead agencies/entities (op)
NTT DATA Corporation
Other participating agencies/entities (op)
Toyota Tsusho Corporation, UTokyo Innovation Platform Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi Corporation
6. Main stakeholders/beneficiaries of the service
Traders (big enterprises)
Traders (SMEs)
Transport
Customs brokers
Customs
Other Government Agencies (OGAs)
Trading companies, Manufacturers, Transport Companies, Financial Institution
7. Business process category of the service
Commercial Transactions
Forwarding and cargo handling
Insurance
B. Lessons Learned
8. Summary description of the project/service
a. Objective(s)
TradeWaltz is the cross-industries trade platform utilizing blockchain technology to streamline trade processes and digitize trade data across industries.
b. Business need for the service (background)
In international trade, B2B exchanges are still paper or PDF based, and a great deal of time is spent on retyping data and other manual work. This is a huge hassle in the covid situation.
c. Business process covered*
Companies involved in trade can communicate with any connected players with TradeWaltz. As trade procedures are digitized and we no longer need papers.
d. Overall architecture and functionalities*
TradeWaltz leverages blockchain technology to prevent the manipulation of its data, thus assuring the credibility of the information.
e. Relevant document/figure
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9. Documents and data exchanged via the service
All documents and data are relevant to trade such as purchase orders, purchase/sales contracts, invoices, packing lists, insurance notes, etc.
10. Data models/databases, proprietary solutions, hybrid approaches
TradeWaltz makes use of combination of distributed databases and blockchain. The data stored on the blockchain layer is hashed only.
11. Main challenges faced during the service
The stakeholders in global trade always struggle with the fragmentation of the data between transactions, which requires time and manual efforts to complete the process.
12. Lessons learned from the service
Since various kinds of stakeholders are involved, it requires a lot of effort to gather and merge all requirements and then come up with one solution.
13. Main benefit(s) of the service
13A. Elaborations/detailed description on benefits gained
Trade practitioners do not need to gather in the office, and TradeWaltz user can have visibility on the status of inventory and logistics.
14. Technical/financial/capacity building/other assistance
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI), ABeam Consulting Ltd., BC Cube Ltd., LaKeel, Inc., Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. (MRI), TIS Inc.
15. Future plan for expansion of the service
We will ally with digital trade platforms in all over the world. We shall proceed with further collaboration like API linkage to build a digital trade ecosystem in the world.
16. Other information or relevant references on the service
We are now proceeding system linkage project with digital trade platforms of Thailand, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand as an APEC project and it is financially supported by the Japanese government.
17. Relevant document regarding the service
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C. Relevant Standards
18. Name(s) of any international, national legal instrument underpinning the service
The International Trade Council (ICC) Japan Committee, The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN/ESCAP)
19. Electronic message standard
19A. Electronic message standard supporting the service
19B. Type of standard for electronic message applied for the service
20. Technical communication standard
20A. Technical communication standard supporting the service
HTTP, SMTP, REST API, JSON format
20B. Type of technical communication standard applied for the service
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21. Security-related standards*
21A. Security-related standard supporting the service
TLS (Transport Layer Security) / SSL (Secure Socket Layer)
Two-Factor Authentication
21B. Type of security-related standard applied for the service
22. Other Technical Information
22A. Interface developed for data exchange with an internal system
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22B. Other technical implementation information
REST API, JSON format
