An example of digital connectivity that addresses both trade finance and food safety is DBS Bank’s partnership with Agrocorp, a Singapore-headquartered agricultural commodity and food solutions provider. They have developed a block chain trade platform that connects 4,500 Australian farmers with Agrocorp’s restaurant and supermarket customers. The platform provides real-time pricing, shared delivery information, and automated trade finance approval. The platform will be extended to include additional source information about the water, fertiliser, and pesticide usage of the commodities traded. This will improve food traceability and food safety. A particularly important dimension of digital connectivity is cross-border data connectivity. Covid-19 has shown that the ability to leverage the cloud to store and access data is critical for business continuity and cyber security, amid travel restrictions and office closures. We need to put in place agreements to enable cross-border data flows in a secure and seamless manner, so that digital transactions can be consummated efficiently. Digital connectivity and trusted data corridors are to the digital economy what free trade agreements were to the traditional economy. Singapore has signed so-called Digital Economy Agreements with Australia, New Zealand, and Chile. These joint commitments provide clarity and certainty to firms moving data across our jurisdictions to support their business operations and risk management. Conclusion Our economies and societies are deeply intertwined: Covid-19 has demonstrated that. 3/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  The way forward should be one of even closer co-operation and deeper integration – keeping global supply chains open and strengthening digital connectivity across nations.
Bank of France reports industrial activity increased in all sectors in December 1996 BANK OF FRANCE, MONTHLY BUSINESS SURVEY, December 1996. In December, according to the business leaders surveyed by the Banque de France, industrial activity increased in all sectors, except in the intermediate goods sector, where it remained stable. The food processing and consumer goods sectors were the most buoyant. The capacity utilization rate remained virtually unchanged. Overall demand firmed on both the domestic market and the export market, where the strongest flow of orders continued to come from the United States and Asia. The competitiveness of French products was bolstered by the recovery of currencies that had weakened earlier, including the United States dollar, sterling and the Italian lira. Order books approached normal levels in all sectors, except in the intermediate goods sector, where they remained too low. Inventories decreased with the end of the lorry drivers’ strike, and now appear to be normal in the capital goods and automobile sectors. In the coming months, most sectors are expected to continue to show moderate growth. Commodity prices as a whole showed practically no change. Finished product prices held up overall, despite the continuing high level of competition. Investment programmes were limited to renewing obsolete equipment or to meeting the desire to increase firms’ productivity in an intensely competitive international environment. There were few plans for output capacity increases and in all cases were dependent on stronger growth in demand.