The World Bank. Modern Transit Global Trends and International Framework.

The World Bank

Modern Transit

Global Trends and International Framework

Cost to the economy

• Companies sometimes spend more money complying with Customs regulations than Customs earn in revenue

• 9 billion documents are necessary each year to process movements of goods in the world

• According to UNCTAD, an average Customs process implies...

Costs

• 27 parties

• 40 documents

• 200 data elements (30 of which are repeated at least 30 times)

• Retyping of 30 percent of data

The Transit situation in Southeast Europe

• The region was - and will become again - a major transit zone– Traffic goes around– Traffic from Turkey goes across the

Mediterranean

• Trans European corridors

• TRACECA

Costs

• Border delays and processing account for 10 percent of transport times between SEE and EU countries

• Thank you.

For us, transit is...

• 90 percent coordination, and

• 10 percent technology

The Bank approach

• Integration– Dialogue– Public - Private sector cooperation– Inter-agency cooperation

• Benchmarks– Indicators– Pilot sites

What can the Bank bring?

• Global perspective on trade facilitation• Transit considered as a support to trade facilitation

• We measure times and costs

• Funding of projects– TTFSE (Southeast Europe)– Caucasus– Kirgyzstan

What else can the Bank bring

• Constant dialogue with the authorities

• Facilitation of contacts– Regional structures– Working groups

• Strong partnership with– International organizations (UN agencies, IMF,

EU, WTO, WCO) and– The private sectorThe private sector

Integrated approach

• Implies other agencies

• Institutional reform

• International cooperation

The Bank approach

• Computerization– Indispensable to meet project objectives– Experience sharing– Opening of the system

• Data sharing

• Web-site

Measurement

• Performance indicators

• Annual review

• Independent survey on transit costs

Computerization

• We seek the best system for the country, make use as much as possible of what exists, fit in other projects

• We encourage development of standards

Where do we go next?

• Promote cooperation at the borders– Cross training - awareness– Delegation of activities

• Cross border exchanges– Single data capture– Data transfer– Use of Customs functions for other purposes

The technological solutions

• New solutions– Smartcard, bar coding, OCR,scanning

• Integrate systems so they are ready for new solutions when they become available

The near future

• Best practice– Provide a package

• Refine benchmarking– To prepare projects– To evaluate results

• Develop transparency

Technical solutions

• We can disseminate information– Technology (Smartcards, scanners)– Hardware– Software solutions

• But it is not our role to design solutions

• Although we can contribute to put together documentation on best practice

Example

• Equipment– Bar coding– Automatic data capture– Use of OCR technology– Telecommunications

Example

• Organization– Single data capture– Coordination across agencies and borders– Coordination with the trade community

Example

• Administrative reform– All legislation and regulations must often be

reviewed– Respective role of agencies must be clarified

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