Dubai Customs processed 4.5 million transactions in the first half of 2017, posting a growth rate of 4.5 per cent compared to the 4.3 million transactions scored in the same period last year, said DP World Group chairman.

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, also the CEO and chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, added that Dubai’s stature as a global trade hub and its sophisticated customs and border services propelled the increase in the number of transactions delivered by Dubai Customs, according to a report in Wam, the Emirates official news agency.

“The positive growth in transactions came despite the general slowdown in world trade which definitely is a strong sign of Dubai’s resilient and healthier economy,” he said.

Figures released by Dubai Customs show that Submit Customs Declaration service had the biggest share of total transactions at 80.6 per cent with 3.6 million transactions processed. Submit Claim service accounted for 458,000 transactions at 10.2 per cent while Book Inspection Appointment service contributed 139,000 transactions at 3.11 per cent and Register Business 53,400 transactions at 1.1 per cent.

Transactions delivered by Dubai Customs covered 19 main services provided through 23 inland, sea and air customs centres across Dubai. The services were catered to customers through six main channels including Dubai Trade, B2G electronic channel, website, and mobile applications.

Sultan Bin Sulayem pointed out that the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC) has contributed a great deal to positioning the UAE at the top of global competitiveness in terms of the efficiency of customs authorities and trade facilitation indices.

“Speeding up the delivery of customs services and easing the flow of legitimate trade, Dubai Customs was able to process nine million transactions annually. If we add this figure to the number of transactions delivered by other PCFC entities the overall would reach up to 18 million transactions a year – that is 1.5 million transactions a month, 50,000 transactions a day. We could not have handled such a huge sum of transactions hadn’t we invested in service innovation, technology and smart transformations to double our efficiencies in all aspects of the trade supply chain,” added Bin Sulayem.

“Our objective is to continue developing trade and customs services through qualitative initiatives that will ensure Dubai is 10 years ahead of the world in line with its ambitious 10X vision.”   

Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, director of Dubai Customs said: “Dubai Customs attaches great attention to promoting synergy and partnership with our clients to ensure them real added value from trading through Dubai.”

“The growth achieved in the number of customs transactions is the fruit of our commitment to providing first-class facilities to traders in order to attract more trade and business into Dubai. We have been keen to develop our capacities in terms of human capital, inspection and scanning technologies, clearance processes and systems and adopting global best practices and standards to step up our readiness levels for the coming Expo 2020 and materialize the UAE vision 2021,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service