Ambassador Cesar Bautista, private sector chairman of the NCC, said the business community welcomes the launching of the Bureau of Customs (BoC)-led National Single Window considered as second to Singapore in complying with global standards in the speed of exporting and importing goods.
Bautista stressed NCC will make its own independent system audit of the integrity of the Internet-based system put in place to simplify the processing of imports and exports.
"We will make a survey of users to find out if they indeed benefit from the wiring of different agencies to a single system which will shorten the dwell time or the number of days government agencies take before a shipment is moved in or out of the local ports," Bautista said.
Bautista noted that when his office made a last review of the state of processes the BoC and other agencies on exports and imports in September 2008, the dwell time was a long 16 days per shipment or more than two weeks.
He noted that the International Finance Corp. (IFC), the investment arm of the World Bank, also arrived at the same conclusion in its 2009 report.
Bautista suggested that a dwell time of three days as a target. A detailed plan of action must be laid out to determine how and when the three-day dwell time can be achieved, he added.
Bautista noted that in the NCCs 2008 assessment, the customs clearance process had been a bottleneck and must be dramatically reduced if the total dwell time is to be comparable to neighboring countries.
A national single window must be able to abide by global features of single window operations that include single documentation, simultaneous processing, and single decision-making, said Bautista.
The new Internet-driven system has interconnected 10 key government agencies that are involved in the issuance of permits, licenses and clearances on imports and exports.
The interconnection will make the processing of international trade papers fast, transparent, consistent and predictable. Targeted to be wired into the system are 30 other agencies.
This will bolster the operations of the BoCs Electronic to Mobile (E2M) computerization and automation program which is already operational in 10 major ports of exit and entry across the archipelago.
"At the end of the day, the best yardstick to the new system is the ease or difficulty port users will enjoy or suffer in the processing of their exports and imports," Bautista added.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Edu Lopez
Quelle/Source: Manila Bulletin, 02.04.2010
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