Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MOSTI) Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin has highlighted that the usage of blockchain will be prevalent in the tracking of the vaccine supply under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
In his website (https://www.khairykj.com/), he said that the emerging technologies are novel in the application, and nascent in the adoption in Malaysia.
“The blockchain technology is meant to help handle two key flows; the vaccine supply chain and logistics tracking, where the ledger can help ensure visible traceability of the vaccine through its supply chain.
Post vaccination proof of vaccination, where immutable data from the blockchain can be used to create an auditable certificate of proof of vaccination. At MOSTI, we will pave the way for encouraging the use of these technologies across a range of use cases,” Khairy commented.
Additionally, Director of Media and Communications at EMIR Research, Jamari Mokhtar highlighted that the blockchain application is due to the meat scandal’s cartel activities and were unmasked by TradeLens platform.
“The most suitable blockchain for the task envisaged by Khairy is the permissioned blockchain whose intrinsic configuration controls the participants’ transactions and defines their roles in accessing and contributing to the blockchain. It may also include maintaining the identity of each blockchain participant on the network,” he said.
On a related point, MOSTI is also exploring the possible use of blockchain technology for customs clearance and improving reliability of Malaysia’s halal meat supply chain.
In October 2020, the Malaysian Custom started using TradeLens, a digital global trade platform that enables more efficient and accurate container tracking and information sharing among platform members.
“The platform enabled the customs officers to have all the needed shipping data as soon as containers leave the port of origin. By November or earlier, this new system was already in full swing,” Jamari added.
