Jakarta – An ASEAN Customs Transit System (ACTS) will be piloted in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The system, aimed at facilitating the movement of transit goods by road within ASEAN, will form an integral component of the vision of ASEAN Economic Community,
Work on developing the ACTS pilot system started on 20 October 2014. The ACTS pilot system development will take 18 months, followed by testing from April to October 2016.
Three ASEAN sectoral bodies will be involved in the implementation of the pilot system. The Customs sector led by the Sub Working Group on ACTS (SWG-ACTS) will play a leading role in managing and monitoring the implementation of the ACTS. National ACTS Project Teams have been appointed to manage the implementation of the ACTS pilot application at national level. The other ASEAN sectoral bodies that will play an equally important role in the implementation of the ACTS will be the transport and financial sectors.
It is envisaged that this initiative will offer significant benefits to the trading and manufacturing sectors and will act as a catalyst for harmonisation and modernisation of the ASEAN Customs and Transport environment to meet the objectives of making ASEAN a single market and production base.
Among other benefits, the implementation of the ACTS in ASEAN will reduce transaction costs, improve delivery times of transit cargo, provide electronic tracking of transit cargo and expedite the implementation of ASEAN transport facilitation agreements.
The European Union under the ASEAN Regional Integration Support from the EU (ARISE) technical assistance programme has provided €3 million financial support for the development and testing of the software for the ACTS pilot system.
The financial support will be supplemented by workshops, training and procedural manuals for the public and private sector stakeholders involved in Customs, Transport and international trade. Regular progress reports will be made available on the ARISE website, where further background information is provided on the ACTS pilot system: http://arise.asean.org.