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Establishing 100 percent online submission advocated:
Thirteen recommendations to enhance trade facilitation
Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI
Jonathan Koh of CrimsonLogic, Singapore said the number of days for
export should be reduced by half from the current 21 days to achieve
excellence in international trade. Paper submission and the
administration burden should be reduced, red tape should be checked and
trade facilitation enhanced, he said.
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From left: Advisor (Trade) Special
Advisory Services Division Commonwealth Secretariat,
Sujeevan Perera, President, FCCISL, Kosala Wickramanayake,
Secretary, Ministry of Export Development and International
Trade, S.Rannuge, CrimsonLogic, Singapore. Jonathan Koh and
Chairman, International Chamber of Commerce Tissa Jayaweera
at a discussion. Picture by Sumanachandra Ariyawansa |
He was speaking on “International Trade Facilitation Findings from
Sri Lanka” at the International Conference on Benchmarking Sri Lanka’s
Trade Facilitation at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel yesterday.
Koh submitted 13 recommendations which should be implemented in three
stages as short, medium and long term from one to three years and
beyond. The cost for the implementation of the program is USD 26.63
million, he said.
Koh recommended the setting up of a Presidential Commission
Government -Business trade facilitation Committee as a short term
measure and added that the effort on this issue is low.
Establishing 100 percent online admission of CUSDEC, extending the
entry receiving time beyond 3 p.m and the standardization of tariff
classification were the other short term recommendations.
He said that all customs related information should be readily
available for those interested. The other recommendations included
establishing pre-arrival manifest submission, reviewing the licensing
procedures, conducting a study for a Public Private Partnership model
for trade facilitation system, Online application and approval of OGA
Licence and permit and establish a port community system.
Koh also outlined three recommendations that had gained high effort -
eliminating duplication of sampling by customs, establishing a national
value added network framework and implementation of a single electronic
window.
Koh said that Sri Lanka is closer to the top half of various trade
rankings compared with other countries and these recommendations can be
implemented without any hassle. There may be resistance but people
expect corruption to be eliminated, improve coordination, online
submission and timely dissemination of rules and regulations.
Advisor (Trade) Special Advisory Services Division, Commonwealth
Secretariat Sujeevan Perera said the overall goal of Sri Lanka’s Trade
Facilitation project is to enhance the competitiveness of Sri Lanka’s
business environment through improvements to its trade facilitation
systems and processes.
The international conference on Benchmarking Sri Lanka’s Trade
Facilitation Systems marked the final event in the exercise of examining
and analyzing the needs in the systems and methods of trade
facilitation.
It was organized by the Federation of Chamber of Commerce and
sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat
Secretary, Ministry of Export Development and International Trade S.
Rannuge also spoke.
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