Singapore Customs on February 9 unveiled the Singapore Customs Academy, its new training institute for customs matters, to mark International Customs Day.
The Singapore Customs Academy, Singapore’s first dedicated facility providing specialist customs training, will help the local trading and logistics community to understand customs requirements. It will also train Singapore Customs officers and foreign officials in customs areas.
“As businesses innovate to take advantage of new markets and opportunities, Singapore Customs designs and implements schemes to facilitate trading activities. It is vital that companies be equipped with the relevant knowledge and capacity to comply with Customs regulatory requirements to enjoy the benefits of increased trade facilitation,” said a Singapore Customs press release.
The academy will offer a range of courses designed for the business community, covering areas such as customs procedures, import and export documentation requirements, and tariff regimes.
The courses will be offered in a modular format, and course capacity will be increased. With the number of course runs doubling to 50, more than 2,200 training places will be available annually.
The courses will be conducted by Singapore Customs trainers, and the academy will also provide an avenue for exchange of customs knowledge and new industry trends between Singapore Customs and the trading community.
Aside from the new facility located at the second level of Revenue House, the academy will have a virtual presence through an online portal to facilitate e-learning and downloading of course materials.
Also showcased at the event are three new integrated supply chain solutions that went live in 2011, enabled by the TradeXchange platform.
These three solutions re-engineer business processes by companies across the supply chain to seamlessly exchange information in the areas of trade permit preparation, trade finance applications and marine cargo insurance applications.
As a result, companies enjoy up to 50 percent time saving in trade permit preparation, up to 90 percent time saving in marine cargo insurance applications, and faster approval and lower costs in trade finance applications, according to the release.
“The outcome is higher productivity and increased business agility for the various companies involved,” it added.
As of Feb 2012, more than 100 companies, including manufacturers, logistics companies, banks and insurance companies have benefited from TradeXchange, the agency said.
Photo by ashkyd
