Recently, the Yunnan Provincial Department of Science and Technology announced the 2024 industrial technology projects planned for funding. The project “Research on Key Technologies and Innovative Applications of Smart Ports”, led by Professor Yu Yimin’s team from YUFE, has been selected for the Yunnan Provincial Major Technology Project funding. The project has a total budget of 20 million yuan, with 5 million yuan provided by government funds.

The project focuses on developing key technologies and equipment for cross-border digital identity for enterprises, multimodal heterogeneous data cross-domain collaboration, privacy computing for cross-border data flow, new secure cross-border supply chain EDI/BXML, and high-trust cross-border digital infrastructure. These innovations will be applied and demonstrated at major national ports in Yunnan Province to overcome key technological bottlenecks in smart port construction and promote the economic development of the province’s ports.

In recent years, the team has concentrated on overcoming institutional, trust, and platform barriers faced in cross-border digital collaboration. They have innovatively proposed a new cross-border information technology system oriented toward distributed trust and peer-to-peer management. In 2021, in collaboration with the Kunming Branch of the China E-Port Data Center, the team undertook the Yunnan Provincial Major Technology Project “Blockchain Application Demonstration for Cross-Border Trade under RCEP”, achieving several significant research outcomes.

The team has been approved to establish the Yunnan Provincial International Joint R&D Center for Cross-Border Trade and Financial Blockchain, led the approval of the first national standard project in the information technology field in Yunnan Province, and participated in the release of two national blockchain standards. Their independently developed “YUFE Chain” has been registered with the Cyberspace Administration of China, establishing a high-trust cross-border digital infrastructure demonstration platform. They have also undertaken several major horizontal projects, including the blockchain platform for the Comprehensive Legal Services Complex in the China (Yunnan) Pilot Free Trade Zone Kunming Area and the China-ASEAN cross-border trade blockchain platform. These projects have been promoted and applied in Yunnan Province as well as in Malaysia and Thailand, yielding significant economic benefits.