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CUSTOMS
commissioner Napoleon L. Morales admitted that they need
to work overtime to achieve single-window transactions
between the ten member-countries of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), a portion of which
should be operational by next year.
In his
speech at the Asean-Europe meeting of customs
commissioners in Japan on Tuesday, Morales said the
regional economic bloc needs the help of its European
neighbors in order to implement the said measure.
According to the schedule of implementation, the
national single windows of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand should be
operational by early 2008.
Cambodia,
Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam, meanwhile, should implement
its own single-window systems by 2012.
“Frankly, we have a long way to go to achieve this
ambitious program, but with the support of all the 10
customs administrations of the Asean and our partner
customs administrations from the European community, we
shall be able to achieve our vision of an Asean
world-class customs service on or before 2015,” he said
to the delegates of the meeting. A copy of his speech
was given to the media.
The
national single-window system involves the single
submission of data and information, single and
synchronous processing of data and information, and
single decision-making for customs release and
clearance.
The
Asean version of the single window, on the other hand,
is defined as an environment where 10 national single
windows of its member- countries shall operate and
integrate for expediting customs release and clearance
within 30 minutes.
In 2005,
the
Philippines and
the Royal Thai Customs made a commitment as the two
pilot countries for the initial implementation of the
tie-up.
At the
moment,
Manila is still asking the European Union for an additional funding
of about €1 million to €2 million to complete the
linkage between some of the smuggling-prone agencies of
the Department of Agriculture and for the Bureau of
Customs (BOC) to start the national single-window
transaction system by next year.
BOC
Deputy Commissioner Alexander Arevalo, in a recent
interview, said that they are also talking with other
funding agencies such as the United States Agency for
International Development, Japan and the US Customs to
complete the other systems needed for the link-up.
“With
this setup, other agencies will have no alibi not to
interconnect with the BOC and have their transactions
automated, thereby reducing red tape and eventually
smuggling,” Arevalo said earlier.
According to the plan, the BOC will give the necessary
infrastructure —such as computer terminals and Internet
connection—to agencies that normally import goods.
The BOC
wanted to link with all 40 government agencies that
issue import permits. |
