The total number of transactions performed by Dubai Customs during the first half of 2014 grew 10 per cent to 4.5 million transactions, compared to 4.1 million in the same period of last year.
"The mounting growth in the number of delivered transactions echoes the nation's increasing economic performance. This is mainly due to the steady recovery of most economic sectors and the increase of foreign trade as a result of a growing demand for commodities necessary to meet the development needs of new and existent projects in all sectors. Accordingly, we at Dubai Customs are committed to boosting our performance so as to keep up with the current local economic growth by ensuring timely delivery of goods without delay through advanced customs transactions that save traders' time and effort and reduce their trading cost," said Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director of Dubai Customs.
Musabih added, "Dubai plays a major role in global trade flows as a leading trading hub which connects regional markets to the outside world. This is clearly reflected through the growth achieved in the number of transactions completed by DC, which could not have been attained without the advanced infrastructure, favourable business environment and exceptional services offered by Dubai's ports, airports and roads." This upsurge is the result of the continued development and improvement strategy implemented by DC. The Department is keen on assessing its performance across the board to ensure the delivery of superior services and facilitations to customers. This provides a real added value to clients enabling them to increase their business returns, which positively impacts Dubai's capacity to attract investors and traders from all over the world and promotes its position as a global destination for doing business.
Mahboob further noted that the milestone Dubai Customs has achieved in the first half of 2014 was accomplished through the deployment of its full resources and potentials to realise DC's strategic objectives, which are in tune with the vision and orientations of Dubai Government aiming to deliver top-of-range smart services to customers. "Dubai Customs is incessantly eager to leverage its level of performance across all its operations to render distinguished services and achieve utmost satisfaction among our clients." Dubai customs' transactions are categorised into the following services: Request for Customs Declaration and Clearance, Request for Guarantees/Deposits Claims and Refunds, Request for Conveyance & Machinery Cards, Request for Inspection, Request for Client Registration (Request for Customs Code), Request for Manifest Registration, Request for Customs Opinion, Request of Appeal, Request for Customs Audit, Request for Awareness and Training Courses, Request for Letters and Certificates, Request for Transactions Report, Request to Record Trademark, Request for Trade Agency Registration, Request for Client Accreditation, Request for HS Code, Request for Customs Cases Follow-up, Submit Information via RAFED, and Contact Dubai Customs' Director.
"Dubai Customs applies a comprehensive business strategy that supports continued growth in the number of customs transactions, through constant development of our services to ensure fast delivery of customer transactions. Our customs centres presently deliver services in record time that we continually work to cut down. And in light of the ongoing upgrade of our services using advanced state-of-the-art technology and IT applications, almost 84per cent of non-risky transactions are now assessed by the Risk Engine – consignment risk pre-diagnosis tool developed by DC – and automatically cleared without any human intervention, in less than two minutes from the time of entering consignment data into the customs clearance system via different channels. Adding to that the efficiency of our advanced X-Ray scanning device, which is the first world-class integrated system of its kind which employs latest screening and inspection technologies," said Dubai Customs' Director.
Musabih also attributed the good results achieved in the growth of customs transactions to the continual development and capacity building of Dubai Customs' human resources. The staff's performance is being enhanced through continued training and rewarding of distinguished employees and high-performers.
Another factor which contributed to this growth is Dubai Customs' transforming into the first fully smart government department. With DC's entire services delivered through smart phones, customers can now submit their service requests 24 hours a day, 7 days a week wherever they are.
DC's customs transactions are delivered throughout all Dubai Customs centres which are Port Rashid Customs, Jebel Ali Customs Centres, Tecom Customs, Dubai Logistics City Customs Centre, Cargo Terminal Customs Centre, , Cargo Village Customs, Postal Customs , Silicon Oasis Customs, DMCC Customs, Dry Port Customs, Ducamz Customs Centre, Hatta Border Customs Centre, Dubai Textile City Customs, Dubai Textile City Customs, Creek Entry Customs, Hamariya Customs Centre, Coastal Customs, Al Khor Customs Centre, Coastal Berth Office, Airport Free Zone Customs, Dubai International Airport Terminal 1, Dubai International Airport Terminal 2, Dubai International Airport Terminal 3, and Al Maktoum International Airport, in addition to Customs Declaration Management at DC HQ.
Dubai Customs is delivering its services through various channels, including Business to Government (B2G), which achieved a growth of 11per cent compared to the same period of last year, and Dubai Trade portal whose total transactions turnout went up by 37 per cent in the first half of 2014 compared to the sum scored one year ago.
Unsurprisingly, the integration of smart services among Dubai Customs' operations resulted in a 42per cent decrease of the number of over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.