THE Philippines is on track to get its National Single Window (NSW) fully operational a year before 2015, the target year for the integration of customs and trade processes of the nine members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon said.
Biazon spoke to PortCalls Asia on the sidelines of the recent launch of the ASEAN Single Window Web portal, with which the country’s NSW will interconnect by the time of the regional integration.
“So far the project implementation is on track, in time for the full implementation of the ASEAN Single Window,” the customs chief said.
Phase one entailed the setup and installation of network interconnections for all 40 government agencies; installation of voice over internet protocol system and email for all 40 agencies; and setup and configuration of the NSW for nominated agencies.
With the project now on its second phase, Biazon is targeting to complete the rollout next year.
“We have already completed phase one of NSW and we are now going into phase two, and the target completion is a year from now,” the customs chief said.
“We are now going into a public bidding for phase two,” he said.
Biazon said phase two would basically harmonize the processes and procedures among the 40 agencies and prepare them for interconnection with the ASEAN Single Window.
The NSW is meant to ease intra-ASEAN trade through efficiencies in customs and authorization processes. Mandated by Executive Order 482, the system cuts the number of processes that an exporter or importer goes through when making a trade transaction.
The NSW is a system that enables a single submission of data and information; a single and synchronous processing of data and information; and a single decision-making for customs release and clearance of traded goods.
Biazon said phase 1 was undertaken with a budget of P400 million and employed the services Crown Agents, a UK-based development specialist, which will install the system and link up the agencies with the network database. Phase two has a budget of P450 million, he said.
Putting the NSW project in place is the responsibility of the Bureau of Customs, as the system deals with customs processes required for export and import trade transactions.
Image courtesy of renjith krishnan/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
