November 21, 2007

BRUNEI : Trade
Brunei To Implement Asean Single Window By 2008 To Facilitate Trade
Bandar Seri Begawan - Asean is creating a Single Asean Window to facilitate trade which is discussed in the annual Asean Summit.
This is where the clearance of shipments and the release of goods by customs authority in the Asean region will be speed up with the establishment of the Asean Single Window in 2012.

Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand will implement the Asean Single Window by 2008 and Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam by 2012.

Through synchorinising the interventions of the government agencies, traders, shippers, forwarders, transport operators and other parties, custom authorities aimed to clear containerized shipments within 30 minutes, target set in the Strategic Plan of Customs Development. Currently, clearance can take up to five days.

Businesses will benefit from the cut in transaction costs and, time, and greater predictability in administrative customs procedures.
Consumers will enjoy more secure and timely delivery of goods at a lower cost.
For the Asean Single Window to come into effect, all Asean countries would first need to set up National Single Windows which is a clearance system that enables a single submission information and date, single and simultaneous processing of the date, and a single point of decision-making through close collaboration among the ministries and other parties involved in the customs clearance process.

Instead of submitting different forms and information to multiple agencies such as customs, ports, health and so on to get a shipment of goods cleared, a trader would only need to submit all information to one agency.

The Asean Single Window will be in operation when all the 10 National Single Windows are operating in an integrated manner.

For instance, if a container of goods destined for Malaysia first enters Asean through Thailand, a trader only has to submit the required data once to a centralised hub and the information would then be automatically shared and processed among the relevant agencies.

Asean has been working closely with various ICT developers, service providers and consultants in developing the technical architecture, prototype and detailed functional model of the Asean Single Window.

The joint efforts of businesses, industries and governments will be crucial in developing and operating an Asean Single Window that meets the needs of businesses and consumers.

Courtesy Borneo Bulletin

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