International trade volumes and profitability would encouragingly receive a welcome stimulus in case the e-customs 'Single Window' concept was popularised around the world.
Furthering on the fact that this would then provide what is necessary to accomplish three main concerns related to cross-border trade namely, reducing costs and cross-border transit time while also scrutinizing illegal trafficking of goods, and even intensify border security. This crucial factor have come into existence as a reason that experts and leading customs officials manifested upon the development of the customs sectors within their own countries and regions in a session titled ‘E-Government, An Added Value to Trade,’ at the Middle East debut of the 2013 WCO IT Conference and Exhibition held under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The discussion was know to have been kept within proper limits by David Evans who happens to be the Head of Tax and Customs Business Unit, Worldwide, BULL Information Systems.
Mark Hill from Digital Coding and Tracking Association (DCTA), while keeping it as a keynote speech, said that according to official statistics, the global loss as a result of illegal trade reached about one trillion dollars in 2012, deprivation resulting from piracy reached over than US$250 billion, while deprivation resulted by cigarette smuggling topped US$600 billion, and global tax revenues fell by US$40 billion. He kept it as a special mention that this situation requires cooperation, solidarity, and coordination between countries to put an end to illegal trade while improving legislation, apply new laws, and adopt the latest technologies, e-government applications and tracking solutions which should be as an addition to applying international standards for technology and linking them across-borders using mobile applications as an example, while also creating records for products to ease their tracking and therefore ensuring easy exchange of information and procedures to abolish or reduce illegal trade and smuggling.
An universal means of digital communication
Emphasizing on the new trends in trade and customs, Nick Small, Director IT Solutions, Crown Agents, said that Customs officers must actuate in the manner of spirit the capabilities of new generations and not find new technologies challenging for them, especially with the rapid growth of technology capacities, and with the extensive use of the internet and mobile phones to communicate. He stressed on another factor that the number of mobile phones sold have been hitting more than 1.7 billion units and regarded as likely to reach two billion by 2015 furthering with the growing interest for social media and making it evident as an universal means of digital communication. This trend would undoubtedly act as a contributor significantly to the application of e-solutions and e-government while also add new value to trade.
Nick Small was also known to have emphasized on the need for cooperation between governments and other businesses via the internet and social media, as public and businesses expect their governments to exchange information and data with them using the single-window while making it a crucial point out for customs administrations to keep pace with the technical progress and to respond to the requirements of trade.
Tom Butterly who is the Deputy Director of the Trade and Sustainable Land Management Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) mentioned that the implementation of single windows, particularly in developing countries, has proven a success story. During his presentation titled ‘Single Window 10 Years On' he emphasized about the fact as to where are we now and where are we going?
While keeping it explanatory about a concept of a single window he continued saying that ‘A ‘single window’ is a nationwide facility that allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardized information and documents with a single entry point which otherwise is one of the key objectives of spreading out strategically an e-government platform in order to fulfill all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements. On the contrary, if information happens to be electronic same as the case when using an e-government portal then in that case individual data elements can only be submitted once.
In his presentation titled ‘Single window, Benin cse’, Elie Sawaya, Deputy Managing Director, Bureau Veritas, Congo DR, continued saying that ‘Benin can serve as a great example for successful implementation of the single window system. Lack of visibility over customs revenues and supply chain efficiency were persistent issues for the Benin government earlier. Subsequently, the implementation of the Port Single Window they have registered a boost in states revenues while also elevated operational transparency having almost all improved with efficiency in the supply chain, while Cotonou port waiting time went down from eight days to 48 hours.
The three-day conference which was an event which has brought together over 1,000 senior decision makers representing the World Customs Organization and customs departments of more than 100 countries, including specialists in customs, security and information technology had a deliberate focus on sharing views, experiences and best practices between global border security agents and other government entities such as customs, environment ministries, municipalities, health authorities, and immigration while it also looked upon the discovery to broaden communication channels between stakeholders to help maintain safer economies and societies inclusive of discussion topics related to customs operations such as control and inspection systems, as well as transport and logistics as the forum’s agenda.
Content resource: an adaptation from Khaleej Times
Image resource: Safe the world
(AW:Samrat Biswas)
