Unlock the Power of Electronic Signature Lawfulness for Shipping in Australia

How to eSign a document: electronic signature lawfulness for Shipping in Australia

changes to the electronic transactions law passed today are expected to encourage more to use digital documents especially for international trade they are now legally accepted in singapore and will help cut down costs and time wasted on paperwork most of these are bills updating used in the maritime industry as trade documents to verify shipments the digital container shipping association says about 4 billion us dollars could be saved each year in half of today's container shipping lines adopt electronic versions of the document the changes also bring singapore closer to digitalizing the lasting power of attorney right now hard copies are needed to appoint someone to make legal decisions for people when they are no longer mentally capable of doing so going digital is expected to cut down the time from three weeks to eight working days another law must be changed for this to happen today's bill largely addresses the trade sector but there are many other sectors that can benefit greatly from digitalization the government will progressively review these other sectors focused and guided by the benefits they bring to our people and businesses the safeguards that are necessary to preserve trust and ultimately to secure singapore's competitive position in the global digital economy while mps welcomed their refreshed law some were concerned about keeping such digital transactions safe from crime they also suggested more types of signed legal documents that could be included under the law nadia malta reports more documents exchanged online could leave them open to more cyber threats mps wanted to know what's being done to protect electronic documents i seek the minister's assurance that we have the digital infrastructure support and cyber expertise to ensure that the cyber fraud risks are minimized would he elaborate upon the measures we have in place to protect the integrity of such digital documents in terms of technological safeguards there have been significant advancements which enable us to transact in an even more secure and seamless manner distributed ledger technology smart contracts and biometrics are just some examples of the rapidly evolving areas these technologies along with transparent electronic audit trails will help prevent the tampering of data by third parties mps also suggested to make other documents legally accepted in their digital form these include signed wills deeds and even banking documents we have pay now we have invoice now our businesses have inquired about when we will have signed now so that the companies can use eSignatures on banking documents and comply with the bank's compliance process during the circuit breaker period electronic execution of contracts became much more common practice however these remain one category of documents where it is unclear if electronic signatures may be accepted the electorate mr suaren replied that the government is studying whether other documents can be legal when done electronically he adds more will be added progressively by 2023 as singapore moves towards being a leading digital economy