ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to link 74 public sector departments, including those of the Defense Ministry, to the Pakistan Single Window (PSW) for clearance of goods for the purpose of import/export by 2024.
“We have completed the business processes of 32 different public sector departments so far and all these departments will be integrated with the standardized Pakistan Single Window (PSW) system by December 2023.
In the first phase, we are going to integrate five key departments including State Bank of Pakistan, Department of Plant Protection, Animal Quarantine Department, Federal Seed Certification and PSQCA.
It will be formally launched by the Prime Minister in March 2022,” Aftab Haider, Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan Single Window, said in an exclusive interview with The News at his office here last week. With Aftab Haider said that it will add 60 to 70 percent of the country's foreign trade.
Aftab Haider, who tendered his resignation from FBR's Customs Service and joined PSW as its CEO, seemed passionate about implementing the ambitious PSW by linking all 74 departments with an online system that would take the Will ensure clearance of goods in efficient human manner. Discretion.
CEO Aftab Haider said, "The PSW system is estimated to help Pakistan save $500 million annually, of which $350 million will be saved at the import level and $150 million at the export level."
He said that the PSW Act was enacted with the approval of the Parliament and the PSW Authority was set up to make rules and regulations to connect all the departments under the new system.
He said that with the appointment of PSW, 29 different documents for clearance of goods would be eliminated and only 10 minutes would be required for clearance of consignment for import and export.
He said that PSW will set up a digital system and eliminate human contact. He said multilateral creditors pledged $67 million, of which the Asian Development Bank (ADB) pledged $50 million, the UK's FCDO from $4.5 to $5 million, but that the government had yet to run PSW's cases. used its own resources. He said the Goods Declaration (GD) required to be filed for clearance of goods was replaced with a single document containing a standardized document for obtaining clearance.
All departments would be linked to PSWs, so everything would become transparent to ensure hassle-free trade, he said and added that the computerized system would give an analysis as to why some departments used the extra time for clearance of goods. . He said that all ports including Port Qasim and Gwadar Port would be connected to PSW while 11 airports would also be connected by June 2023.
To another question about the need to ensure cyber security, CEO Aftab Haider said that the previous cyber attack on FBR affected PSWs as well and was a real and genuine concern and should be avoided at all costs. He said that PSW will hire cyber security experts and open bidding for running the data center for the required expertise.
He added that top countries such as South Korea, ASEAN states, Hong Kong and Singapore are running the system in PSWs. He said that Pakistan will cooperate with other countries after successfully implementing the PSW system across the country and replacing the existing manual system with 100 per cent trade on the online system.
Aftab Haider said that there were more than 100 employees working in PSW and many of them joined on deputation for a few years from the public sector. “Our employees are truly passionate to bring about a revolution in facilitating foreign trade as a standardized system for clearance of goods will be implemented with the consent and ownership of all concerned stakeholders,” he concluded.