FAISALABAD: Issuance of Electronic Certificate of Origin (E-CO) is an important and appreciable attempt of TDAP and PSW to transform export procedures from manual to online system, said Dr Sajjad Arshad, Acting President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI).
Addressing a training session on E-CO, he paid best tribute to the TDAP and said that it was making concerted efforts to give a quantum jump to the national exports by extending maximum facilitation to the business community.
“E-CO is actually a step towards a paperless environment”, he said and added that FCCI would fully cooperate with concerned organizations to achieve this objective. He was also sanguine of TDAP for collaborating with FCCI and regularly arranging diverse awareness sessions for its members.
Advisor TDAP Kamal Shahryar said that Pakistan is beneficiary of 14 out of 16 Trade Preferences Agreements including three PTAs with China, Malaysia and Indonesia. He said that only TDAP is authorized to issue CO for preference agreements while chambers are issuing COs in case of non-preference agreements. He said that under GSP plus, exporters could attest their own documents after getting a subscription of “REX”. He said that PSW has developed three different modules for these agreements which would not only ensure transparency but also save precious time in addition to opening new avenues for exporters. He said that PSW has also launched a portal offering all related facilities under a single domain. He said that the ratio of facilitation provided in 2015 was only 40% which has now jumped to 80%. “It has also cut down the cost of $50 per container,” he said and added that PSW has been linked with 90% ports and dry ports and 70% border posts. He said that in near future PSW would also be linked with China and Uzbekistan.
Ms Azka Rehman said that exporters were facing multiple problems which are being redressed with the launch of PSW. She said that this system has so far provided a cumulative benefit of $450 million as the procedures completed in days are now being accomplished in hours. About PSW, she said that it took three years for its design with the financial assistance of the World Trade Organization. She said that parliament passed the PSW act in 2021 and now all problems relating to external trade are being resolved from this single platform. She further said that PSW has inked agreements with 29 banks and financial institutions to further streamline the system and make online payments.
Omar Saleem Consultant PSW gave a comprehensive presentation on E-CO while a question answer session was also held. Vice President Haji Muhammad Aslam Bhalli, Executive Member Shafique Hussain Shah participated in this session in addition to Rao Fazalur Rehman Deputy Director TDAP Faisalabad.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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