Turkish bank employs blockchain technology in foreign trade
By Vugar Khalilov
Turkey’s VakifBank applies a new blockchain technology in foreign trade, Yeni Shafak newspaper has reported.
An important stage has been left behind in the Turkish Trade Chain Project, where blockchain technology is used to accelerate foreign trade activities and reduce costs.
The first phase of the project, which began in 2021 and included VakifBank, Defence Technologies Engineering (STM), Dogus Automotive, Dogus Technology, and Unsped Customs Consultancy, was completed successfully.
The work flows and stakeholders of 313 high-importance documents in the project's import and export procedures have been extracted and evaluated one by one.
During the first phase, test data was written to the blockchain network using the "tax payment" and "Customs Tax Collection Receipt" (GVTA) documents, which were generated after cash management payments. As a result, each stakeholder had access to the relevant document based on their level of authority.
The project aims to accelerate foreign trade processes through smart contracts, strengthen data security and tracking through encryption and distributed ledgers, increase cooperation between stakeholders and eliminate repetitive data sharing. In the next phase, it is planned to import different documents in foreign trade into the system.
VakifBank played a key part in the implementation of this multi-stakeholder initiative, which aims to translate cutting-edge technology into goods and services that would boost international trade, as well as trust, speed, and convenience in the operations.
VakifBank aims to diversify its service channels with blockchain technology, breaking new ground in foreign trade and cash management processes with Online Tax Collection (API), Gumkart, and SMS Customs services.
The Turkish Trade Chain project, which is based on multi-stakeholder and multi-stage data sharing, attracts attention as an important step toward the digitalization of all processes in foreign trade.
The platform's inclusion of all foreign trade actors, from importer and exporter companies to warehouse operations, is expected to have a significant impact.
Blockchain technology is expected to reduce communication traffic between stakeholders in the foreign trade process (which requires the production of many documents) and make data sharing more transparent, traceable, verifiable, and controllable.
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