MEDIA RELEASE

Simplifying and Facilitating Green Trade Finance through Digitalisation

Singapore, 27 June 2023 SGTraDex today announced the successful completion ofpilot green trade finance transactions in the built environment sector with theseamless and trusted exchange of green data and certification through SGTraDex,
and the expansion of its green trade financing capabilities by bringing commercialand green data onto a single platform. With the successful pilot, the benefits
provided by SGTraDex as a reliable and secure data highway can be extended toother industries, by eliminating the need for bilateral connection between parties,
improving traceability and unlocking new efficiencies and opportunities.

Enabling a digital and traceable workflow
A UOB-led consortium of banks including DBS, OCBC and Standard Chartered,supported by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), Monetary Authority ofSingapore (MAS) and JTC, sought to reduce the friction to accessing green data andcredentials in the built environment ecosystem for evaluating Green and Sustainable
Trade Finance, especially during the construction stage. The ecosystem partners
brought together commercial documents and ESG data required for Green andSustainable Trade finance to enable a digital and traceable workflow throughplatform providers such as Doxa Connex, eliminating existing friction in the financing
process.
During the pilot which ran from 23rd May to 7th June 2023, two sets of transactions
were facilitated through SGTraDex:
UOB was able to rely on data from ESGpedia to obtain the green certification datafor the new Punggol Campus of Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). By
leveraging on traceability from digital document exchange, UOB was able to avail1green and sustainable trade finance to APP Engineering Pte Ltd, a sub-contractor toKimly Construction Pte Ltd, main contractor for SIT’s Punggol Campus Plot 2.
OCBC Bank has also completed its first data exchange transaction on SGTraDex
with a home-grown construction and civil engineering company, the main contractor
of an industrial project by JTC. Under the transaction, the Bank successfully verified
through SGTraDex the project’s Green Mark certification.

Key stakeholders expanding the use cases to support wider industry adoption
Following the successful pilot, the industry partners comprising Doxa Connex andESGpedia, the consortium of banks — DBS, OCBC, Standard Chartered and UOB,
and the public sector including BCA, MAS and JTC, will support wider adoption tofacilitate green trade financing.
SGTraDex acts as a data highway for commercial and ESG related data toconverge, enabling ecosystem players to access all data required through one touchpoint.
BCA enables data availability from its Super Low Energy Building (SLEB) Smart Hubsystem as well as through the ESG Registry under MAS’ Project Greenprint. SLEB
Smart Hub is a comprehensive digital platform that incorporates a range ofdatabases and digital tools to promote energy efficiency and encourage energy
savings in the building environment, in support of the Singapore Green Building
Masterplan.
When building developers and owners apply for Green Mark certification, they can
now consent to share pertinent data with financial institutions, thus facilitating andstrengthening green financing efforts. All building developers and owners in
Singapore are encouraged to share their sustainability data through the SLEB Smart
Hub to support the green financing eco-system for buildings. With this data, building
developers and owners can benchmark their building’s energy performance against
industry peers. The comparison of key performance indicators like air-conditioning
efficiency with other buildings helps to identify potential areas to improve energy2efficiency. Large developers in Singapore including JTC, HDB have shared theirsustainability data via SLEB Smart Hub to benefit their contractor and supplierecosystem.
ESG Registry, part of MAS’ Project Greenprint, and powered by STACS’
ESGpedia, is a ESG data and technology registry for multiple industries. For thebuilt environment sector, ESGpedia has amalgamated project certification and green
material certification data across green certificate issuers to facilitate green
financing. MAS’ Project Greenprint is a collection of initiatives that aims to harness
technology and data to enable a more transparent, trusted and efficient ESG
ecosystem to enable green and sustainable finance. Please refer to MAS’ media
release on Project Greenprint.
UOB, DBS, OCBC and Standard Chartered will leverage data includingcommercial and ESG related data to avail green financing to a wider pool ofsuppliers and contractors seamlessly.
Doxa is a procurement platform that facilitates the digital exchange of documents
between buyers and suppliers. It focuses on simplifying complex workflows forcompanies in the construction industry to optimise efficiency. Leveraging the datafrom Doxa, ecosystem players can establish traceability of transactions back toqualified green projects.
A more transparent and efficient process will help businesses advance their green
initiatives and strengthen their supply chain resilience. This will help boost thesustainability of Singapore’s supply chains and establish the country as a green
trade finance hub.

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Quote Sheet
Ms. So Lay Hua, Head of Group Transaction Banking at UOB said “We arepleased to announce that UOB can now leverage SGTraDex to access the ESG
registry and other commercial data securely and seamlessly. This will allow us toprovide a digital sustainable financing process to our clients. The trusted end-to-end
connectivity, through a single trade data highway for relevant commercial and ESG
data, will simplify green financing to the broader ecosystem including material
suppliers and sub-contractors while ensuring digital traceability. The initiative started
with the construction sector but its benefits of increased confidence in digital data
along with operational efficiency can be also expanded across other industries. UOB
is committed to building the future of Singapore as a financial hub and connecting
ASEAN, by staying relevant and strengthening our digital capabilities.”
Mr Melvyn Low, Head of Global Transaction Banking at OCBC said “Thissuccessful data exchange gives us confidence in SGTraDex’s vision of connecting
supply chain ecosystems via a trusted and secure data sharing infrastructure. We
are glad to contribute to this initiative to make it easier for more building andconstruction companies to obtain green and sustainable financing, and we lookforward to working with SGTraDex on more use cases that will benefit ourcustomers.”
Mr. Lim Soon Chong, Group Head of Global Transaction Services at DBS Bank
said “Streamlining the exchange of commercial and sustainability-related data points
helps to bring companies a step closer to accessing green trade financing. We
recognise that digitalisation, underpinned by strong public-private partnerships, is apivotal catalyst in driving the sustainability agenda forward. Through SGTraDex,banks can access trusted and secure data in facilitating expanded financing
opportunities to corporates across industries, and accelerate the transition to a lowcarbon future.”

4Ms. Maisie Chong, Head of Trade and Working Capital, ASEAN and Head ofTransaction Banking, Singapore at Standard Chartered Bank said “Theavailability of reliable, timely data will help to enable building and construction
players, of all sizes, to gain improved access to sustainable finance. This enhanced
capability is an important step forward in reaching our collective goal of a net zerofuture. At Standard Chartered we are committed to working with our partners andclients to support effective climate action as we accelerate financial solutions thatpave the way for a just transition.”
Mr Ang Kian Seng, Group Director, Environmental Sustainability Group at BCA
said “This pilot promotes transparency in sustainability-related data disclosure in thebuilt environment. It will facilitate the access to green financing opportunities andenable building owners to pursue their environmental objectives. We encourage allbuilding developers and owners to register on the SLEB Smart Hub to share theirdata for green financing and contribute to a stronger green financing eco-system inthe built environment. Green financing is a key instrument that leads to all-win results
among green building project stakeholders, which will help us speed up the realisingof our Singapore Green Building Masterplan’s ‘80-80-80 in 2030’ targets.”
Mr. Ng Eng Sin, Director, Facilities Engineering & Systems at JTC said “At JTC,
we are committed to spearheading sustainable innovation in the building andinfrastructure sector. We are pleased that the financial sector is keen to incentivize
the design and development of BCA Green Mark buildings and recognise thecollaborative effort from contractors and suppliers towards achieving this common
goal. We encourage our fellow developers to provide their support to this initiativeand collectively drive towards sustainability in the sector.”
Mr. Lim Cheng Khai, Executive Director, Financial Markets Development
Department at MAS said “The successful pilots ease the friction in tracing andverifying sustainability-related data in the building and construction supply chain, andbring Singapore a step closer to catalysing green trade finance to support thedecarbonisation of our economy.”
5Mr. Edmund Ng, Co-Founder & CEO at Doxa Holdings said “Doxa is proud to beat the forefront of digital transformation and innovation for the built environment
sector with Doxa Connex, our procure-to-pay-to-financing platform. This pilot
demonstrates how end-to-end workflow digitalisation through Doxa Connex can beamplified through partnership with SGTraDex to support our customer’s financing
and sustainability agenda while delivering meaningful savings from operational
efficiency.”
Mr. Benjamin Soh, Managing Director at STACS said “At STACS, we believe in an
ecosystem-wide approach in driving sustainable development. Covering over 5
million sustainability disclosure data points, and empowering multiple industries
across Asia towards Net Zero, ESGpedia serves as an epicentre of a rapidly growing
ecosystem of partners across the region. Our partnership with BCA and SGTraDex
underlines our commitment to contribute to greater access to better, more granular
data for sustainability and effective green finance to accelerate the region’s
decarbonisation goals.”
Ms. Thaw Yee Leng, Head of Market Development at SGTraDex said
“SGTraDex’s role as a data highway from a public-private partnership forms thefoundation of a neutral trusted data environment for data flow and exchange. The
established connectivity with ESGpedia (powered by STACS) as part of MAS’
Project Greenprint and Doxa enabled Green Mark certification and commercial datato converge through a single touchpoint, providing data access for the building andconstruction players and facilitating green trade finance decision by banks. This
proof of value between SGTraDex and partner banks UOB, OCBC, DBS andStandard Chartered, supported by MAS, BCA and JTC had been instrumental tocollectively accelerate the drive towards industry-wide sustainability outcomes.”

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Notes to editor:

About SGTraDex
Launched on 1 June 2022, the Singapore Trade Data Exchange (SGTraDex) is adigital utility that facilitates the sharing of data between supply chain ecosystem
partners, streamlining information flows through a common data highway where data
can be shared in a trusted, secure and inclusive manner.
SGTraDex uses proprietary technology anchored through a public-privatepartnership model to resolve pain points in supply chain ecosystems including aheavy reliance on a paper-based system which lacks efficiency, transparency andsustainability. The move to digitise information will increase productivity and build
supply chain resilience. New efficiencies and opportunities will be unlocked whenecosystem partners can collaborate to achieve a shared visibility of the end-to-end
supply chain. For more information, visit sgtradex.com
Media Contact
Alvin Teu
Marketing Manager, SGTraDex
alvin.teu@sgtradex.com

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