In addition to its role in protecting society and public health, combating fraud, enhancing import security and facilitating international trade, Saudi customs have adopted the concept of modernization and development on an ongoing basis to keep pace with changes and developments on the regional and international arenas, believing that customs work must be characterized by a rapid change and development.In its strategy, Saudi Customs is keen to take advantage of international best practices and the latest smart solutions and technologies in all areas of customs work. Believing in the necessity of overcoming the obstacles, enhancing the principle of partnership with Saudi customs partners, facilitating the movement of trade between the countries of the world, and achieving access to gains for the national economy.
Targeting Saudi customs in its vision of investing the Kingdom’s unique geographical location, in an effort to increase the flow of global trade between Asia, Europe and Africa and enhance economic gains, in addition to working to make the Kingdom’s distinctive logistical location and energy sources a catalyst for a new start towards industry and export and re-export to all Countries of the world.
With the Kingdom pumping huge investments over the past years to establish ports, railways, roads and airports, the Saudi customs have worked to make the most of these investments through effective governance and procedures through a highly efficient and advanced customs system.
Qualitative leaps in the level of general performance witnessed by the General Authority of Customs during the last stage through the implementation of its strategy that is compatible with the vision of the Kingdom 2030 and the national transformation program, as many initiatives and commitments that represent pillars and auxiliary factors for its work and activities were launched and implemented.
Saudi customs realized the importance of the existence of capabilities that enhance economic growth and encourage investment, so its strategy included pillars that achieve this orientation, and these pillars include facilitating trade exchange and strengthening enforcement of laws and regulations to protect society and the national economy, raising the efficiency and effectiveness of revenue generation, in addition to improving customer experience and contributing to security and protection Community and raise the efficiency and effectiveness of revenue.
The Saudi customs achieved qualitative developments at the level of customs clearance procedures through its various customs outlets, through the “Clearance within 24 hours” program, which was launched by customs in late 2017, which led to reducing the periods of customs clearance of goods, and the linking of customs services with the clearing platform, in cooperation With all governmental and private entities linked to clearing, in increasing and improving the level of customs services provided, as the platform forms a unified electronic window to facilitate trade by unifying and automating import and export procedures and associated logistical services, as well as linking between the relevant authorities. The platform provides about 135 services at the same time, and across one site, which saves customs brokers, shipping agents, importers and exporters a lot of time and hardship to complete their transactions.
The distinguished results achieved by customs in this regard confirm the effectiveness of the clearance program within 24 hours in reducing the opening period, flexibility and ease of flow of imports. One of the most prominent positive results achieved was the description of the Doing Business 2020 report issued by the World Bank, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as the most advanced and most reformed country Having achieved an unprecedented jump in the ranking to reach 62nd compared to 92nd in the 2019 report, as well as ranked first globally in business environment reforms, as it implemented 9 out of 10 reforms measured in the report.
The Kingdom’s progress in the cross-border trade index is the second highest after the start of the commercial activity index, as the kingdom jumped 72 places to move from 158 in 2018 to 86 in 2019. This significant improvement in the “cross-border trade” index is due to A number of measures and reforms that Saudi customs began to implement during the last phase, as customs were in line with the economic transformation program and the Kingdom’s 2030 vision from the beginning through its implementation of an integrated strategy for digital development and transformation that was demonstrated by the electronic clearance platform that contributed to reducing customs clearance procedures and came Pass the procedures, and reduce the time required for clearance to one working day, after it had previously taken 14 days.
She also worked since the launch of the clearance program within 24 hours to reduce the documents required for import and export from 12 documents for import and 9 documents for export to two documents for each of them, as the import process requires “invoice and bill of lading” and the process of exporting “invoice and manifest”, in addition to reducing the number of restricted customs items For import in coordination with the relevant authorities, at 20%.
The “Certified Economic Operator Program” is one of the most important programs launched by Saudi Customs since the announcement of its new strategy, as customs seek to facilitate trade movement and simplify customs procedures, which would contribute to encouraging investment and promoting the growth of the national economy. This program includes granting customs the advantages of trade facilitation to commercial establishments that have a secure supply chain and comply with the required standards, which in turn will accelerate the processes of goods clearance and trade facilitation between the Kingdom and the countries of the world, and these advantages provided through the approved economic operator program include procedural and control advantages, In addition to the administrative and financial advantages, and the advantages of mutual recognition with other countries, as these advantages are designed to meet the requirements of the various trade sectors, and it is mentioned that the number of commercial establishments that are members of the program reached about 175 establishments. In this context, the Saudi customs signed the “mutual recognition” agreement for the economic operator program with Emirates and Bahraini customs. This is in order to strengthen the ties between Saudi commercial establishments and their counterparts in other countries.
Seaports are considered the main nerve of the commercial movement, and with the passage of 70% of the Kingdom’s exports and imports through it, Saudi Customs initiated a focus on developing deposit areas in various seaports, keeping pace with customers’ aspirations in this field, and securing advanced deposit areas supports the goals of Vision 2030 in that The Kingdom becomes a global platform for logistics services, by providing integrated services for freight traffic.
The development of the deposit areas aims to serve the import and export operations, so that exporters can complete their customs procedures in record time with ease and flexibility. These procedures include customs clearance, container unloading, and re-export. In this regard, Saudi customs signed a number of agreements with some local authorities to develop deposit areas that serve their exports.
Zones and warehouses provide many advantages for foreign companies, the most prominent of which is to take advantage of the services of the deposit areas without the need for a commercial registry within the Kingdom, which is one of the most important factors supporting investment.
In this context, the authority has worked to reorganize the practice of the customs clearance profession by amending the regulations for this profession, as a mechanism has been organized for the procedures for issuing, renewing and revoking customs clearance licenses, which includes allowing the establishment of companies and institutions for customs clearance, and in this regard the Saudi customs have allowed the granting of licenses to practice a profession Customs clearance of foreign companies specialized in the logistical sector, which achieves enabling international companies specialized in the logistical sector to provide integrated logistic services at all stages through which the goods pass.
Source link
https://www.okaz.com.sa/news/local/2012888
