STANDAGE Inc. (Minato-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Akinori Adachi, hereinafter referred to as "Standage"), a company that develops and provides digital trade platforms, participated in the "Study Group for Promoting the Utilization of Trade Platforms" (hereinafter referred to as "this Study Group") hosted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a trade platform provider.
This study group will be held three times from November 2023 to March 2024. In March, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry published an interim report that summarized the challenges and barriers to advancing the digitalization of trade procedures that were raised throughout the three meetings and outlined the direction of future responses by both the public and private sectors.

■ Background of the event and interim report
The total volume of global trade transactions is on the rise, reaching a record high in 2022. However, much of trade-related work is still based on original documents and manual processes, and the digitalization of trade is recognized as a long-standing challenge.
In this situation, although a number of trade platform services that promote digitalization have been launched around the world, the current situation is that shippers have not yet fully adopted the use of trade platforms.

In light of this, it was decided to hold this study group, bringing together major manufacturing companies engaged in trade globally, trade platform providers, and relevant ministries and organizations involved in the digitalization of trade procedures, with the aim of sharing challenges facing the digitalization of trade procedures between the public and private sectors and determining concrete solutions.

An interim report published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in March 2024 set a goal of increasing the proportion of trade transactions digitized through trade platforms to 10%, stating that achieving this goal is expected to result in cost savings of 300 billion yen per year.

By providing a digital trade platform, Standage will contribute to achieving a 10% digitalization rate for trade, and will continue to develop and provide all trade-related services and systems with the aim of realizing "a world in which all countries have equal access to all goods."

*For more information about this study group, please see the relevant METI website.
https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/external_economy/digital_trade_platform/index.html

■About Standage
Founded in March 2017. With a vision of "creating a world where all countries have equal access to all things," the company is developing a new trade settlement system that utilizes blockchain and stable coins to enable the safe, secure, and inexpensive simultaneous exchange of "goods" and "money" regardless of region or country. The company sees its main market as emerging countries, especially in Africa, and has established bases in four African countries, including Nigeria, to carry out trade business with Africa. It is not limited to the trade settlement field, but develops and provides systems that realize digital transformation for the entire trade system, including market development, ordering, and international logistics, while also working to support exports by small and medium-sized enterprises in order to increase the number of new domestic trade players.

Established: March 2017
Representative: President and CEO Akinori Adachi
Capital: 608,568,500 yen (including capital reserve of 302,782,500 yen)
URLhttps://standage.co.jp/