DT World to offer customs reform program to Ukraine – President’s Office

DT World (the UAE) will offer the Ukrainian side a roadmap for reforming, modernizing Ukrainian customs, simplifying, accelerating and improving its work, according to a Tuesday posting on the website of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

The relevant proposal was made by DT World Chief Operating Officer Mahmood Al Bastaki during a meeting in the President's Office dedicated to the reform of the Ukrainian customs.

In turn, Deputy Head of the President's Office Yulia Svyrydenko suggested focusing on the development of a roadmap in order to submit it to the senior leaders.

Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said that the key problem in Ukraine is not IT development, where the country has huge potential, but the reengineering of processes.

The COO of DT World suggested organizing an appropriate team that will study the Ukrainian system, processes, carry out a comprehensive review and then propose a roadmap for future work. "The issue of legislation, reengineering of processes and the creation of an appropriate electronic system is very important, since this will not happen without an assessment of the risk mechanism," Al Bastaki said.

According to him, DT World has experience working with customs services in more than 100 countries, offers solutions that contribute to the reform and modernization of customs services, improve the protection of state borders against illegal movement of goods thanks to an automatic risk assessment system for all transactions, and increase income, speed up the customs clearance process for traders.

"The result of the implementation of the approaches and solutions that we propose will increase the volume of trade and the growth of national GDP. Ukraine can significantly improve its level of the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index (LPI), which investors are pursuing," he said.

According to Al Bastaki, the company is ready to offer Ukraine its developments and help in introducing new approaches, which will not require capital investments from the state.

DT World is owned by one of the largest port operators in the world – DP World, specializing in trade facilitation solutions and services.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko, Head of the State Customs Service Pavlo Riabikin, and advisor to the head of the President's Office Tymofiy Mylovanov.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua