The South Korean government will apply blockchain technology to e-commerce customs clearance procedures. If this scheme takes effect, document forgery and falsifications will decrease a bit and customs clearance procedures will speed up.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Customs Service (KCS) Tuesday unveiled a plan to build a blockchain-powered trial service related to e-commerce clearance. A pilot project to that effect will be carried out fully beginning in January in cooperation with private businesses.

This is one of the six public pilot projects the government announced in June as its core task aimed at developing blockchain technology. The Ministry of Science and ICT and the customs agency have been collaborating to push for this project since the beginning of this year.

At present, e-commerce shipping companies are obliged to make a list of 28 kinds of property clearance data combining e-commerce traders’ goods order data and their shipping data and submit it to the superintendent of a customhouse. All things implemented in this process are conducted manually.

But the proposed blockchain-based customs clearance system makes it possible to collect 28 kinds of clearance data automatically by sharing the goods order and shipping data in real time. The Korean government said the automated system will result in cutting the total clearance time by a quarter of a day at least.

The customs office said it will make every effort to extend the proposed service to other businesses and encourage other companies related to customs clearance such as warehouse firms to take part. Ultimately, the proposed scheme will be upgraded to an integrated e-commerce clearance service. “We will thoroughly examine the possible application of blockchain technology in the e-commerce clearance sector and contribute to boosting blockchain technology through collaboration with the private sector,” said Kang Tae-il, director general for information management and international affairs bureau at the KCS.
/Sora Kim srk@decenter.kr

김소라 기자

srk@decenter.kr