TradeCard and Sabre technologies tie up

TradeCard Service (Pvt) Ltd, a joint venture of TradeCard Inc USA and Sabre Technologies, a subsidiary of MAS Investments, was launched last week to cater to countries in the Indian subcontinent.

The CEO of MAS Investments (Pvt) Ltd Chandana De Silva said that the joint venture is a result of a successful three-year partnership that enabled TradeCard to benefit from strong business expertise and local market knowledge delivered by Sabre Technologies.

Working with TradeCard is a significant opportunity to deliver valuable supply chain services to brands, retailers and suppliers in the region. The TradeCard network of buyers, suppliers and service providers is an advantage for customers, particularly in tight credit environment today. Financial services available on TradeCard network are a major benefit to local business that face liquidity issues.

Over 4,000 companies in the apparel, footwear and consumer goods industries improve their margins, cash flow and supply chain visibility through TradeCard, he said. The Chairman and CEO of the TradeCard Inc. Kurt E.Cavano said that TradeCard is a IT platform that connects all stakeholders, the buyers, sellers, banks, shipping and insurance companies in the supply chain. TradeCard has revolutionalised the global trade.

The company was started in 1999 and we looked at the growing international trade and saw that the trading is done in the same we it did 400 years ago. There are lot of paper works. We decided to introduce the internet into the trading system and TradeCard was introduced with a US$100 million investment, he said.

TradeCard has connected all stakeholders in trade and international trade became efficient, faster and cheaper. Today TradeCard is used in 60 countries. Three years ago TradeCard was launched in the South Asia region and we are happy on the growth. Today there are 400 customers in the region and this year total value of the trade handled by TradeCard in the region is US$ 1.5 billion.

There is a huge growth potential in the region and we have high expectation on the TradeCard growth in the South Asia region Cavano said. He said that the security of the system is assured and the company spend huge money to ensure the security of the TradeCard.

Sri Lanka will be the regional hub of TradeCard Service and Cavano said that people with good education and domain expertise are the reasons for choosing Sri Lanka. We do not outsourse various functions in different countries and TradeCard will do development, testing and service in Sri Lanka, he said.

The Managing Director of the MAS Active (Pvt)Ltd Shirendra Lawrence said that the TradeCard has enabled his company to better working capital management through the elimination of manual process and the assurance that recoveries will be made on time, with minimum human intervention. MAS Active has been using TradeCard platform as a "seller" for the past five years with a number of brands, he said.

(GW)