Just a few years ago, the Dubai government set a very aggressive vision to compete with the major cities of the world, and to stand out as the leading trade hub in the Middle East. This left Dubai Customs with no choice but to evolve and transform.
The characteristics of the environment when this transformation started was by no means favourable. Dubai Customs was a traditional paper-based organization. There were about 1,500 employees, processing about two million Customs declarations per year. The information technology (IT) functions were limited to basic software development, using traditional technologies.
According to a diagnostic study undertaken by the WCO in 2002, while Dubai Customs offered a number of services, the operating environment …show more content…
To do so, the current state of the organization was assessed – the performance of its operations were determined, notably by calculating the time that it took to clear goods from airports and seaports, and the amount of documentation that had to be supplied. A study on what Dubai would look like in 2010 and in 2015 was also undertaken.
The study predicted that by 2010 declarations would grow by 400%, and passenger traffic by 300%. To support this growth without reforming the then existing operating model meant that Dubai Customs would have to increase its staff numbers from 1,500 to 6,000 by 2010. Moreover, there was a need for increased efficiency of ports and airport operations if existing clearance times were maintained.
In the initial planning phase, it was thought that all Dubai Customs would have to do to meet the challenges of this future environment would be to introduce new technology systems. But it was very quickly realized that, in order to implement a sustainable solution, Dubai Customs needed to change the basic premise of its operations with the consequential impact on the organization’s operating model and the way its staff …show more content…
Building business capacity, and more specifically:
- Establishing a reform and modernization function which would take into account existing international standards and directives developed by:
• the WCO (introducing intelligence-based risk management – incorporating a ‘risk assessment engine’ – in transaction processing, introducing a post-clearance audit function to assure compliance, introducing a reconciliation function to validate transaction data obtained from documents such as declarations, discharge lists and import manifests, and introducing trade facilitation measures, the most notable being the use of the ATA Carnet for the temporary admission of goods which Dubai implemented in 2013);
• the World Trade Organization (specifically in the area of goods valuation);
• the United Nations (several frameworks that streamline and control international trade);
• the Dubai government (the transformation of all services to electronic/mobile services, and the creation of an executive service ‘dashboard’ which enables directors to monitor the performance of their teams and the quality of the service
The characteristics of the environment when this transformation started was by no means favourable. Dubai Customs was a traditional paper-based organization. There were about 1,500 employees, processing about two million Customs declarations per year. The information technology (IT) functions were limited to basic software development, using traditional technologies.
According to a diagnostic study undertaken by the WCO in 2002, while Dubai Customs offered a number of services, the operating environment …show more content…
To do so, the current state of the organization was assessed – the performance of its operations were determined, notably by calculating the time that it took to clear goods from airports and seaports, and the amount of documentation that had to be supplied. A study on what Dubai would look like in 2010 and in 2015 was also undertaken.
The study predicted that by 2010 declarations would grow by 400%, and passenger traffic by 300%. To support this growth without reforming the then existing operating model meant that Dubai Customs would have to increase its staff numbers from 1,500 to 6,000 by 2010. Moreover, there was a need for increased efficiency of ports and airport operations if existing clearance times were maintained.
In the initial planning phase, it was thought that all Dubai Customs would have to do to meet the challenges of this future environment would be to introduce new technology systems. But it was very quickly realized that, in order to implement a sustainable solution, Dubai Customs needed to change the basic premise of its operations with the consequential impact on the organization’s operating model and the way its staff …show more content…
Building business capacity, and more specifically:
- Establishing a reform and modernization function which would take into account existing international standards and directives developed by:
• the WCO (introducing intelligence-based risk management – incorporating a ‘risk assessment engine’ – in transaction processing, introducing a post-clearance audit function to assure compliance, introducing a reconciliation function to validate transaction data obtained from documents such as declarations, discharge lists and import manifests, and introducing trade facilitation measures, the most notable being the use of the ATA Carnet for the temporary admission of goods which Dubai implemented in 2013);
• the World Trade Organization (specifically in the area of goods valuation);
• the United Nations (several frameworks that streamline and control international trade);
• the Dubai government (the transformation of all services to electronic/mobile services, and the creation of an executive service ‘dashboard’ which enables directors to monitor the performance of their teams and the quality of the service