Business sans Borders - Trade without Barriers | IMDA - Infocomm Media Development Authority

Business sans Borders (BSB) is a global initiative, by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) that aims to create digital trade opportunities by connecting business platforms, trade associations, government bodies, financial services, and other services providers.

By linking domestic and international platforms with cross-border connections, we envision a connected world that will greatly help to improve the trade discovery and matching of buyers, sellers, and service providers across platforms and industries. This will increase digital trade opportunities and deepen the financial and digital inclusion of SMEs.

BSB redefines digital trade rails in the SME space

SME digitalisation is a common goal of countries, trade associations, digital marketplaces, and the businesses themselves. We seek to multiply these efforts by connecting them together, thereby bringing greater value and services to all participants.

Digitalisation has been changing the way buyers and sellers find each other. Even then, there are still gaps. By connecting platforms, both domestic and international, BSB seeks to improve the trade discovery and matching of buyers, sellers, and service providers to increase digital trade opportunities and deepen the financial and digital inclusion of SMEs.

Imagine a small business has joined a digital marketplace. It has taken the first step into the digital world. But its digital world is defined by the reach of that marketplace. The size of that digital world defines its ability to reach potential buyers, sellers, and service providers.

Now imagine that digital marketplace is connected to other marketplaces. The opportunities for that small business have now grown exponentially, both in terms of potential trade partners and service providers such as financing and logistics. All of this delivered to that business without it leaving its existing marketplace.

This is the vision of BSB.

A local sundry store owner Neha has experienced shortages of goods and rising prices on her digital marketplace. Despite the growth of that marketplace, it is not growing as fast as Neha’s needs. When her marketplace connects to other marketplaces, Neha is now presented with a world of opportunities. Her options have been expanded with new products to sell and a wider choice of suppliers, both locally and globally. Neha is now able to quickly find the right product for her customers and more importantly, within the familiarity of her own marketplace.

For Governments

With the BSB initiative, governments can drive greater financial inclusion and digitalisation for domestic businesses, particularly SMEs
Through digitalisation, SMEs can be plugged into wider markets and further develop their brands and products for an international clientele.
With a large pool of suppliers readily connected, supply chain diversity and security can be promoted.
Local service industries (such as financing, logistics, professional services) can also use the BSB initiative to drive their digital offerings and grow their customer base.

For Trade Associations

With the BSB initiative, trade associations can expand the business opportunities for their members by digitally enabling them and connecting the local community to the global marketplaces.
Trade associations are catalyst to bring members into the global value chain and providing essential trade support services.

For Marketplaces and Service Providers

With the BSB initiative, digital marketplaces and service providers can be connected to a wider community of local and global marketplaces of buyers and sellers, developing a vibrant and interoperable SME ecosystem.
Connected digital marketplaces facilitate uninterrupted cross-borders and cross-platform data flows that reduce the complexity of domestic and foreign trade, enabling faster and seamless digital trade opportunities and transactions.
Service providers onboard the BSB network will have more opportunities to be discovered by SMEs at their point of needs, especially to complete a trade transaction.

For Digital Marketplaces:

For Service Providers:

BSB is a public-private sector initiative

Following the successful completion of the Proof of Concept in Nov 2019, IMDA and MAS have worked with our private sector partner Proxtera to realise the BSB vision.

Proxtera has successfully launched a live meta-platform in December 2020 and has since connected to a growing number of marketplaces across Asia and Sub-Sahara Africa. Trades through Proxtera can be facilitated by an ecosystem of finance, logistics, and infotech service providers.

Core components of the BSB ecosystem:

Information harmonization, documentation digitisation, and workflow automation to enable SMEs to be interoperable and trade seamlessly in the global ecosystem across participating platforms

Merit-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) engine to match buyers to sellers across participating platforms, enabling better trade outcomes

Digital Store of essential business services (such as financing, logistics and professional services) to support and facilitate the closure of matched trades

Innovation sandbox environment provides an incubation space for SMEs and technology service providers to innovate.

Visit Proxtera to find out how they enable technologies and solutions that could help you scale your business and reach a global audience.

Click on the Proxtera logo or scan this QR code:

Join the BSB community and expand your reach today!

Business e-commerce platforms, service providers, trade bodies, and governments are warmly welcomed to be part of this cross-border digital trade business network.

Register your interest here
or scan this QR code: