Dubai Customs Receives a Delegation From the Suez Canal Special Economic Zone

Dubai Customs (DC) has welcomed a delegation from the Suez Canal Special Economic Zone (SCZone) in a bid to further boost bilateral ties between the UAE and Egypt.

The visit was aimed at getting a hands-on look at Dubai Customs systems, procedures and in-house developed technologies, as well as exploring prospects for fostering joint cooperation.

The DC Executive Directors, Abdullah Al Khaja of Customer Management Division and Saeed Al Tayer of Policies and Legislation Division, Shuaib Al Suwaidi, Intelligence Department Director, Mohammad Musabeh, Senior Manager Communications and Relations RILO, and Hala Al Yousfi, Senior Manager Regional and International Affairs; received the visiting delegation comprising Dr. Ahmed Darwish, Chairman of SCZone, Abdel Qader Darwish, Deputy Head of SCZone and Soha Mohamed Gamal, Follow-up Office Director of the General Authority of the SCZone.

The visitors were walked through different phases of Customs’ IT evolution which have led to the establishment of world-class trade facilitation and control processes and procedures. They were introduced to DC’s fully integrated system "Mirsal 2" in a presentation by Bader Al Kharoosi, Head of Solutions Delivery at DC IT Department, who showcased the grand capabilities of the system through paperless clearance of risk-free consignments in less than two minutes prior to the physical arrival of goods.

The Egyptian delegates also learned about DC experience with the smart Risk Engine; a ground-breaking system capable of identifying and mitigating risks in the supply chain via multi-resources intelligence feed. The Risk Engine system largely contributed to the automatic processing of 96% of Customs transactions in 2015.

Clients Happiness Abdullah Al Khaja highlighted that DC’s smart applications and systems have made a notable contribution to the evident surge in clients happiness up to 95 per cent as per the happiness daily meter during 2015. Al Khaja also introduced the SCZone delegation with DC’s latest updates on the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) programme.

Executive Director of Customer Management Division also affirmed DC’s keenness on boosting relations with Egypt as a key trading partner of Dubai, which is attested in the 22 per cent growth of bilateral trade mounting up to AED 15.8 billion in 2014 compared to AED13 billion in 2013. Meanwhile the bilateral trade between the brother nations reached AED10.8 billion by the third quarter of 2015.

"During our meeting with our brothers from Egypt, we have discussed DC’s pioneering experience and means of cooperation in respect of the exchange of expertise and information at the Customs level. We are keen on cascading our expertise, accumulated knowledge and best practices to best serve the Egyptian Customs work," Saeed Al Tayer said.

The visiting delegation also toured Dubai Customs Command and Control Center for a better view of the day to day Customs operations.

On his part, Deputy Chairman of SCZone Abdul Qader Darwish expressed his gratitude for the warm welcoming he and his colleagues received, and hailed DC’s ground-breaking initiatives.

He said, "This visit was a good opportunity for us to get a closer perspective on Dubai Customs’ leading experience as an optimal benchmark and take away some best practices that would help enhance our Customs work in Egypt."