The World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Universal Postal Union (UPU) are helping Indonesia’s customs and postal agencies to establish an advance electronic data exchange mechanism on postal items in view of the rise in e-commerce transactions.
To achieve this objective, WCO and UPU recently organized a joint technical assistance mission for Indonesia within the framework of the UPU’s SECUREX Pilot Project, intended to improve risk management and facilitate the clearance of the growing number of postal items in the e-commerce environment.
In his opening remarks, Gilarsi Wahyu Setijono, president director of Indonesia Post, noted the phenomenal growth in postal parcels via e-commerce and associated challenges due to largely manual processes. He underlined the need for an electronic interface between Customs and Post for the exchange of data to facilitate the clearance of postal items, and outlined the initiatives already undertaken.
Djanurindro Wibowo, deputy director of customs, highlighted the challenges being faced by Indonesia Customs in dealing with the boom in small and low-value shipments, with 94% of them below US$100, and recognized the timely support by the WCO and UPU for the advance electronic data exchange that is key for improving security and efficiency of postal supply chain.
The experts from the WCO and the UPU guided the participants through all the steps and associated processes needed to initiate, establish, test, and launch the advance electronic data exchange mechanism. In this context, legal and regulatory frameworks, cooperation arrangements, business processes, technical specifications and IT systems, as well as associated WCO and UPU instruments, standards, and tools were examined and discussed.
The more than 30 participants from Indonesia Customs and Post learned the functionalities and technical aspects of the UPU’s Customs Declaration System (CDS) that is based on the joint WCO/UPU Customs-Post electronic data interchange (EDI) messaging standards. Issues concerning data sharing agreements, data confidentiality, and data exchange frameworks were also explained and discussed in the Indonesian context.
Currently, Indonesia is testing the CDS and exploring its interface with Customs’ IT system. Based on the standards, tools and best practices, Indonesia Post and Customs have outlined a broad action plan through 2020 to exchange advance electronic data on inbound and outbound postal items, once the CDS goes into full production phase and they start receiving advance electronic data from origin posts.
Photo: Jack Moreh
