GS1 Hong Kong as the First Batch of Participant in CDI’s Initiative Unlocking the Next Generation of Trade Finance Service for SMEs

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 24 October 2022 - GS1 Hong Kong (GS1 HK) welcomes the launch of Commercial Data Interchange (CDI) by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today.

As the first batch of CDI participants, we fully commit to support the next generation digital trade finance services through the offering of trusted digital trade data from GS1 Hong Kong's ezTRADE, a long-serving B2B order-to-cash platform.

As one of the first key collaboration partners in HKMA's CDI pilot project since its inception in 2020, GS1 HK has successfully launched its ezTRADE Data Management Portal connecting to CDI as Data Provider.

GS1 HK has been digitising trade by connecting buyers and suppliers through ezTRADE for more than 20 years. It is being used by a range of industries like fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and food and beverage (F&B) companies, including 95% of local supermarkets, 79% of hospital drugs supply chains and 70% of Hong Kong-styled fast food restaurant groups today.

GS1 HK has been partnering with banks to offer digital trade financing, which aims to help business get working capital easier and faster. The up-to-date and trusted transactional data such as purchase orders and invoices reflect the latest financial health of the borrowers. With the consent from the borrowers, banks can get the reliable data from ezTRADE as alternative data to accelerate the credit assessment and approval processes.

In addition, we have been helping banks to build a trade financing workflow system that bridges their own applications to CDI, saving their development efforts while facilitating secure sharing of data. As a data provider with expertise to support connectivity between banks and the CDI, GS1 HK plays a pivotal role in digitising trade and shaping the digital trade financing landscape.

"We are excited to have partnered with banks to offer new financial services to our ezTRADE suppliers community. Not only does this new offering speed up SMEs' access to working capital, but as well provide banks with trusted up-to-date trade data to offer better loan facilities and continuously monitor the borrowers' health. CDI provides an efficient and scalable ecosystem to collaborate with more financial service providers," said Dr. Stephen Lam, Chief Operating Officer of GS1 HK.

Instead of multiple one-to-one connections between banks and sources of commercial data, CDI enables each bank and data provider to have a single connection to CDI, making data sharing more secure, efficient, and scalable.

"By providing alternative data for banks to enable more streamlined and hassle-free services to SMEs, we have been bringing great value to the SMEs in their continued digitalisation journey. We look forward to working with more banks, third party logistics providers, technology partners and other stakeholders in the digital trade financing ecosystem, empowering more innovative services to the SMEs," said Anna Lin, Chief Executive of GS1 HK.

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About GS1 Hong Kong

Founded by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce in 1989, GS1 Hong Kong (GS1 HK) is the local chapter of GS1^®, which supports companies' digitalisation to enhance supply chain transparency and efficiency, ensure product authenticity, and facilitate online and offline commerce with global supply chain standards (product identification key and barcode) and a full spectrum of standard-based platforms, solutions and services.

Currently, GS1 HK has around 8,000 corporate members covering close to 20 industries including retail consumer goods, food and food services, healthcare, apparel, logistics as well as information and technology. By engaging with communities of trading partners, industry organisations, government, and technology providers, GS1 HK is fostering a collaborative ecosystem with the vision of "Smarter Business, Better Life".

Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, GS1^® is a not-for-profit, standards organisation that has 115 national chapters serving 150 economies globally. For more information, please visit www.gs1hk.org.