SINGAPORE : Asia’s leading B2B e-commerce group, ZALL Smart Commerce Group (ZALL), announced that it will be expanding the scale of its operations and investments in Singapore. ZALL will invest in its Singapore business, including Commodities Intelligence Centre (CIC), a Joint Venture between ZALL, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and Global eTrade Services (GeTS). It has increased its recruitment efforts, with a number of open roles for its operations and trading teams in Singapore. ZALL is also investing into technology to further enable Singapore SMEs to trade more freely across Asia.

ZALL is one of the nine bidders who made the shortlist for the Singapore wholesale digital banking license with only three licenses will be awarded by end-2020. The digital bank foray will mark ZALL’s fourth major project in Singapore as it aims to bridge the funding gap and support the expansion of local SMEs and micro-SMEs into Asia.

ZALL’s Chairman, Yan Zhi believes that the pandemic has highlighted the importance of leveraging cross-border growth opportunities, especially between ASEAN and China to build more resilient supply chains. Mr. Yan’s comments were shared at the recent FutureChina Global Forum 2020 (FCGF) that was attended by over 1,300 regional delegates who discussed the latest development trends and growth opportunities between China and ASEAN. From Singapore, the event was graced by Minister for Trade and Industry Mr Chan Chun Sing.

“While it is business as usual in China now, the rest of the world is still affected by the pandemic that has disrupted supply chains, cratering economies. Today, most of the trading and transactions have to be done online, creating an urgency for traditional businesses to leverage on digital platforms and digitally transform as soon as possible in order to survive,” emphasized Mr. Yan Zhi, Chairman of ZALL.

“With confidence, we will eventually go through the difficulties, through the epidemic and fog before us, and the world in three years will only be better,” said Mr Yan.

The pandemic has amplified Singapore’s importance in driving ASEAN-China trade, a valuable proof point around ZALL’s decision to establish its international headquarters in Singapore by launching Commodities Intelligence Centre (CIC) two years ago (2018). CIC is Singapore’s first B2B e-trading platform for physical commodities powered by blockchain technology. It offers a global intelligent trading platform to more than a dozen countries, helping companies to reduce transaction costs, optimise the efficiency of their supply chains across cross-border trading, financing, logistics, compliance and risk management; and achieve greater trading synergies globally.

Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, CIC has seen sales revenues at approximately US$1 billion (S$1.36 billion) during the first half of this year (2020), which exceeded the total revenue throughout last year. Moreover, the number of customers on the CIC platform increased by 20 per cent as compared to 2019, resulting in a surge in the level of activity on the entire platform.

Mr Peter Yu, CEO of Commodities Intelligence Centre, shared, “Singapore has the ideal geographical location when it comes to commodities trading, playing a critical role in supporting regional trade. Singapore’s nation-wide push for digitalisation has created the necessary environment to groom digital-savvy talents, and we look forward to inviting ideal candidates to join our growing team in Singapore.”

“Be it COVID-19 or the recent spike in dengue cases, CIC offers opportunities for businesses of all sizes to mitigate crises by diversifying revenue sources and extending their global reach of their supply chains. In doing so, we are building business resilience against current and future pandemics,” added Mr Yu.