Today’s export trading realties include features such as cargo tracking across borders; customs procedures accelerated by single-window platforms services and policies that promote transparency among trading partners. These are but a few of the scenarios that enable a world, fuelled by digital technologies, in which industries earn more from better cross-border business, governments realise economic gains in gross domestic product (GDP) and multi-nationals reach into new markets faster.
The single variable that connects these features is technology. In these disruptive times, there’s hardly an industry that doesn’t credit its current sustainability to the implementation and use of some technology solution.
Looking forward, it is our position that in the export trade, specifically, it’s more than the technology but a digital-first thinking about how the technology will make the difference for the future.
It’s a way of working that consistently probes data for intelligence to inform improvements, course correction or new product development.
To advance the idea we will go back to the starting point of a key export and trade technology now being utilised in nearly every continent across the world.
The case of the single window
According to a 2011 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) report, there was rapid expansion in global trade that characterised the 1980s and 1990s. Yet, despite the parallel “breakneck developments in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) (at that time)… trade documentation exchanges remained mostly paper-based.”
The report further outlined that it wasn’t until there was appropriate application of ICT modalities to the issue that the concept of the “Single-Window” emerged.
The UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business would come to define this solution as “a platform that lets trade stakeholders submit documentation and relevant information through a single point of entry, in a standardised way to let them complete export, import and transit procedures.”
This solution transformed the time consuming requirement of multiple streams of information, often involving multiple agencies and regulatory actors, into a one-time, single entry portal for data.
This extraordinary cross-border collaboration tool gives users access to approvals, authorisations and certifications required for the import and export of goods.
“The benefits of such a system, enabled by technology, are immediately obvious for businesses; because whether it’s small, medium or a large operation, the savings in time, money and the reduction in bureaucracy are tremendous,” explained Tasha Smith, Sales Manager at MC Systems.
When the Single-Window was first established, the label “digital first” was not attached to the solution, but the thinking and ultimate application was, indeed, a ‘digital’ one. Twenty years later many countries in the world that have digitalised customs procedures benefit from greater efficiency in daily trading activities.
Today, Jamaica has improved the frameworks that enable efficiency in import-export trade with Jamaica Customs Agency’s integration of the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) as one such significant step.
Another is the development of Jamaica Single Window for Trade (JSWIFT), which directly addresses some of the challenges of the past by allowing traders to submit transactional information for Cross Border Regulatory Agencies (CBRAs) and Participating Government Agencies (PGAs) through a single access point.
The implication of this global trend, as discussed by Forbes, is that the demand for technologies that engender collaboration through the line – from governments to industries, companies and down to citizens – will not slow. So key sectors such as export trading must keep equal focus on the present and the horizon. Digital tech will be central to the solutions and digital-first thinking will be the strategic advantage.
We are here to support you as your technology consultant. Let’s start the conversation. Connect with us at solutions@mcsystems.com | 876 552-8124 | 876 564-2231.