By John Lee.
Iraq's Minister of Finance, Taif Sami (pictured), inaugurated the Customs Automation Project as Umm Qasr Port on Sunday.
The project aligns with the requirements of the global Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA), forming part of the Ministry's strategy to apply international customs standards.
The system's implementation aims to achieve financial discipline, error reduction and resource efficiency, and to provide accurate real-time financial data to enhance service efficiency and effectiveness.
Sami highlighted that digital infrastructure development and customs automation would facilitate Iraq's transition to a digital economy, enhance customs capabilities to facilitate e-commerce, and stimulate the investment environment.
The Ministry has adopted various digital projects to revolutionize customs operations, resulting in faster processing, cost reduction, paperless transactions, tighter control, and reduced smuggling incidents.
The Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) is a computerized customs management system that covers most foreign trade procedures. It handles manifests and customs declarations, along with accounting, transit and suspense procedures. It also generates trade data that can be used for statistical economic analysis. The ASYCUDA software is developed by UNCTAD.
ASYCUDA uses international codes and standards developed by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization), WCO (World Customs Organization) and United Nations. It can be configured to suit the national characteristics of individual customs regimes, national tariffs and legislation. ASYCUDA provides Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) between traders and customs using prevailing standards, such as XML.
(Sources: Ministry of Finance; ASYCUDA)
Does this complete the system at all ports?