The government’s overall strategy for the study also includes area like of real estate, online voting, and international e-document distribution.
Two South Korean government ministries have recently launched a blockchain pilot for port logistics innovation, according to a press release from the country’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIT), published.
MSIT, together with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, is reportedly testing whether the technology can make Korea’s container shipping industry more efficient. As the press release depicts, the pilot will run over a period of one year in the Port of Busan, which is the country’s largest port and the fifth busiest container port worldwide.
The move leverages elevation of the logistics industry
The government’s initiative aims to ascertain whether leveraging blockchain technology can successfully increase transparency between all parties in the logistics industry, streamline administrative processes in import and export operations, and allow for real-time data sharing.
Reportedly, both the ministries have been collaborating on the project as of early 2018, as part of a “Blockchain Technology Development Strategy,” officially announced by MSIT in June 2018.
According to reports, other core pilots in the strategy are planned across the fields of real estate, online voting, livestock record management, customs clearance, and international e-document distribution. Moreover, the strategy as a whole aims to raise about $204 million by 2022.
Furthermore, if the shipping logistics blockchain pilot at Busan will prove successful, both ministries strategize to expand the initiative across other ports nationwide. As reported in June 2018, South Korea has announced a partnership with the United States State Department to strengthen the two countries’ cooperation in advancing the so-called “Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
The term has been given by the World Economic Forum (WEF) to indicate a series of technological breakthroughs that “will fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another… [across] the global polity.” The WEF notably recognized blockchain’s major role in the Revolution as early as 2016.
