Liu Song, vice president of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has said in an interview that the company is considering blockchain tech implementation for cross-border supply chains. Song’s remarks were noted in an article published by China’s largest state-owned newspaper, People’s Daily, on Wednesday, March 6.

Song underlined that in the future, Alibaba can implement blockchain in complex supply chains to create a closed-loop ecological system that could be linked with local governments. Alibaba also plans to develop new technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain in the fields of customs brokers, international logistics and trade finances, according to Song’s extended remarks to brokerage and investment bank China Galaxy Securities.

Back in December 2018, Alibaba Group announced an upgrade of its service platform to a cross-border supply chain platform with the use of IoT and blockchain technologies.

As Cointelegraph reported on Oct. 25, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, Alibaba Cloud, announced their aim to expand their enterprise-level Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) to major international markets including Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia.

Earlier in October, Alibaba Group had filed a patent application for a blockchain-based system authorizing parties to freeze or halt user accounts associated with illegal transactions, or intervene in a blockchain network, Cointelegraph wrote on Oct. 5.

Recently, the World Trade Organization published a report that underlined the effectiveness of blockchain applications for several industries, including cross-border trade finance, logistics and transportation.