St. Petersburg State University E-Foreign Transport

Main article: EDMS (more)

E-foreign transport is an electronic document management platform for maritime transportation based on blockchain technologies, which allows you to issue an electronic bill of lading for Russian exports.

E-Bill of Lading Platform

Platform users are participants in maritime transboundary transportation: exporters, seaports and terminals, sea carriers and banks that carry out trade financing of foreign economic activity.

The E-Foreign Bill of Lading platform is designed to solve the problems that arise when using a paper bill of lading. Among them are expenses for the downtime of the tanker due to a delay in the delivery of cargo documents, lost profits of the port due to non-production downtime of the pier, loss of time when delivering the bill of lading to the recipient, which reduce the efficiency of trading and trade financing.

The use of electronic bill of lading allows you to speed up the exchange of information about the cargo and significantly reduce delays and interruptions in its transportation. It is possible to reduce the time of turnover of cargo documents from an average of 4-5 days to 1-3 hours, which leads to a decrease in the costs of national exporters, an acceleration of bank export-import operations, an increase in the turnover of sea vessels and an increase in the efficiency of using the port infrastructure.

The use of electronic bill of lading and electronic letter of credit gives a significant competitive advantage to participants in foreign economic activity and the banks serving them, as they provide their customers with the opportunity to receive cargo fees faster.

Advantages of using blockchain:

"E-foreign transport" makes it possible to carry out a secure data transfer process between all interested participants in cargo transportation. The platform significantly reduces the processing time of paper documents, making it faster and easier to issue consignment notes for cargo, issue sanitary certificates, obtain customs permits, invoices for payment and other documents. Also, it allows you to track the movement of cargo around the world in real time, which makes it possible for all export participants to track the presence of cargo, and for the authorities to remotely allow its further movement. That is, the organization of cargo transportation becomes visual, understandable and always contains the most up-to-date confirmed information. By using dual encryption and invariability, the platform is secure, and the use of smart contracts automates the workflow.

The purpose of the creation of the E-Foreign Transport platform:

The main goal of the creation of the E-Foreign Transport platform is to ensure the competitive advantage of Russian participants in foreign economic activity and banks engaged in trade financing of foreign economic activity by providing the best financial and commercial instrument for issuing electronic bills of lading in Russian jurisdiction.

Compliance with the development of Russian jurisdiction:

"E-foreign transport" meets the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the Code of Merchant Shipping of the Russian Federation, the Federal Law "On Electronic Signature," which provides for the use in private law relations of electronic documents, other data signed by electronic signature. The Federal Law "On Electronic Signature" provides for the possibility of applying electronic signatures created in accordance with the norms of law of a foreign state and international standards in legal relations between participants in electronic interaction on the basis of an agreement between such participants. Accession of the Russian Federation in July 2023 to the Framework Agreement on the Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade Procedures in the Asia-Pacific Region.