Korea Customs Service Shares 'Digital Customs Administration' Expertise with Africa

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Customs Service is transferring digital customs administration know-how to Africa.

The Korea Customs Service announced on the 25th that it recently held an online trade and investment seminar jointly with the African Development Bank.

The African Development Bank is an international financial institution established in 1964 with the purpose of supporting economic development and social progress in Africa through investment resource mobilization and technical assistance.

The seminar was organized as a forum where more than 200 officials from African regional government agencies, international organizations such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and private companies discussed topics including 'Reducing Corporate Logistics Costs through Customs Modernization' and 'Revitalization of the African Continental Free Trade Area.'

In particular, the Korea Customs Service introduced the Korean-style electronic customs clearance system 'UNI-PASS' during the panel discussion and presented cases of a paperless electronic customs clearance environment.

It also took time to introduce efforts to establish a virtuous cycle structure that leads to reduced corporate logistics costs, increased tax revenue, and expanded investment through UNI-PASS.

Previously, since 2012 to the present, the Korea Customs Service has provided free customs administration modernization consulting projects to 10 countries in the African region, and is supporting the development of customs clearance systems modeled on UNI-PASS in five countries including Cameroon, Ghana, Tanzania, Algeria, and Ethiopia.

Last year, to promote customs modernization in the African region and expand exports of UNI-PASS based on this, the Korea Customs Service and the African Development Bank also signed a memorandum of understanding.

Director General Noh Seok-hwan of the Korea Customs Service emphasized, “To overcome the economic crisis triggered by COVID-19, digitalization of customs administration and non-face-to-face administrative services are important,” adding, “Moreover, we must take the current crisis as an opportunity for computerization of the trade environment and make bold investments in building customs and trade systems utilizing new technologies and big data.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.