Upon the successful development of the digital ASEAN Customs Transit System (ACTS), ARISE Plus funded by the European Union has focused efforts towards building private sector partnerships.
Since the launch of ACTS, ARISE Plus has organised five national private sector outreach events for participating ASEAN Member States and a sub-regional event for the North-South Corridor involving Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. These events have been well received and the private sector have showed continued interest. ACTS is a regional mechanism to simplify and improve road customs transit between the participating AMS in line with Protocol 7 of ASEAN Framework Agreement of Goods in Transit (AFAFGIT).
On the 1st December 2022 a second sub-regional private sector partnership event was held, this time for stakeholders in the East-West Corridor. The event brought together 49 private sector participants from Thailand, Vietnam, Lao PDR and Cambodia for a three-hour workshop. The joint event was organised to link manufacturers and transporters along the East-West Corridor, to enhance understanding about ACTS and to provide a platform to share views and concerns.
The ARISE Plus Team Leader provided invigorating opening remarks which was followed by a presentation from the project Transport, Transit and Customs Advisor. Two keynote speeches by industry players captured the attention of the audience. These industry players shared their experience of using ACTS. Numerous benefits of ACTS were highlighted, such as reducing the time for trucks to move from Bangkok to Singapore by half, from 5 days to 2.5 days. The event included two presentations by the technical experts from ARISE Plus. This was followed by a Q&A session that provided participants the valuable opportunity to clear doubts and seek further clarifications. Among topics of interest discussed were bank guarantees, customs procedures, and the benefits of using ACTS in land transport in comparison to conventional customs transit methods.
ARISE Plus will next organise dedicated follow-up workshops, for participants of the East-West Corridor Private Sector Partnership Building Event who expressed their interest in capacity building and embarking on the journey of seamless movement of goods in ASEAN using ACTS: change brings new opportunities.
