The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with five international partners, to develop and adopt common data standards and Application Programming Interface (API) specifications.
The APISs will facilitate data exchange for port and maritime services transactions. The partners are CargoSmart (solution provider for the Global Shipping Business Network), GTD Solutions (representing TradeLens), GeTS and PSA International (jointly representing CALISTA), and the Port of Rotterdam Authority.
The signing was witnessed by MPA’s Chairman, Mr Niam Chiang Meng and the International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s Secretary-General, Mr Kitack Lim.
The MoU to drive interoperability is timely as port authorities have developed or are developing maritime single windows to implement IMO’s Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic to facilitate the electronic exchange of information for port clearance.
This collaboration will also support MPA’s digital OCEANSTM initiative, where individual data platforms of port authorities, port operators, shipping lines, logistics companies and platform providers can exchange data and interoperate through a common set of APIs. MPA and its partners will also hold a series of technical workshops to design, test and publish the API specifications.
MPA’s Chairman, Mr Niam Chiang Meng said on the occasion:
The maritime sector is a global business. Different players in the maritime ecosystem are pursuing digitalisation at varying paces. To truly reap the benefits of effective information exchange, we need to move beyond digitising single nodes in the maritime supply chain
Mr. Niam added that COVID-19 has exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains on a scale never seen before. For this reason, digitalisation, decarbonisation and adaptation to new global trade order are issues that have to be addressed by the industry.
