Dubai Customs ‘smart workplace’ to speed up declarations

Dubai / Emirates Business

Dubai Customs launched on Monday the Smart Workplace Platform, the latest innovative initiative that comes as part of Dubai Customs’ efforts to materialize the vision and directives of the UAE wise leadership in instilling innovation as a fixed approach and a daily practice in order to achieve the move towards a full smart government following the directives of Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
The new smart workplace aims at turning traditional services into a unique user experience that reduces time and cost and accelerates the process of finalizing declarations using a number of smart and innovative tools and characteristics.

Five folds
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DP World said that the launch of this initiative will serve the objectives of Dubai Customs’ strategic plan 2016-2021 which supports the objectives of the national agenda following the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DP World explained that the new smart workplace will accelerate the process of finalizing customs declarations and reduce the time from 4 to 5 minutes instead of 20 to 40 minutes. Declarations consumed an average of 1.76 million man-hours annually and now, using the new smart platform, the number is reduced to only 360,000 man-hours; which means a five-fold reduction.
“This will help boost customs transactions and increase Dubai non-oil trade which witnessed a 17% increase during the first half of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015” bin Sulayem added.

AED 68 million
The new smart workplace will also help companies save AED 68 million annually. This will help raise client satisfaction and boost Dubai Customs further to maintain its position being the top department on the happiness index, according to Smart Dubai Office.
“Dubai Customs is always proactive when it comes to clients’ satisfaction. This is what gained it the first place on the Happiness Meter at 95 % “bin Sulayem explained.
“DP World carries out about 18 million transactions annually or 50,000 transactions daily. This huge number encourages us to always look for more innovative ways to handle this job” he concluded.

Boosting Economy
Commenting on the launch of the new smart workplace, Juma Al Ghaith, Executive Director of Customs Development Division at Dubai Customs said: “We, at Dubai Customs, seek the best partnership approaches with our clients to achieve the highest levels of client satisfaction and to help boost Dubai’s economy. Dubai Customs is the first defense line that protects the economy and health of our society. We always seek best ways that facilitate our job and reduce time and cost which will reflect on a better clients’ performance and their ROI. This initiative will also support Dubai’s efforts in hosting Expo 2020 through the facilitation of customs transactions and processes” he explained.
“The number of declarations carried out through the new smart workplace witnessed a 53% increase from May to November which resulted in a 100% client satisfaction last September compared to 93% in May. Also, the number of companies using the new workplace increased by 78% between April and October, with 80% increase in using the workplace for customs declarations” he added.
Al Ghaith thanked his team at Customs Development Division for their hard work and dedication to help this Smart Workplace go live.

Increasing productivity
Al Ghaith briefed the attendees with the functions of this new platform:
“The new initiative is a platform that turns traditional online services into smart services through restructuring the services and declarations and improving interaction and usability”
“The new smart workplace will provide the clients with a number of smart tools that will reduce their time and cost and increase the number of customs declarations. The number of companies using the new workplace rose by 74%, and the number of users rose by 78% during the period between April and October” he explained.

Awarding the
heaviest users
Dubai Customs awarded the first ten users and the top five companies using the Smart Workplace since its launch in May until November. They were awarded with Dubai Customs memorial shield and
appreciation letters.