Articles under section " Dossier: Destination....Data! "

Each year, the WCO Secretariat chooses a theme that it deems relevant to the international Customs community and its partners. In 2022, it is inviting Customs administrations to “Scale up Customs Digital Transformation by Embracing a Data Culture and Building a Data Ecosystem”. “Digital Transf...

WCO Data Strategy All WCO Members are rich in data, but a large majority of them lack resources and skills to effectively become data-driven organizations and implement the actions mentioned above. To support them, the WCO Secretariat has placed data-related topics on the agendas of several commit...

In October 2021, the World Trade Organization (WTO) reported that despite COVID-related interruptions, container throughput in international ports remains at or near record levels[1]. Even if the growth in cross-border movement of goods is not evenly distributed among countries, it is no longer feas...

A fundamental requirement for successful communication between individuals is that they all speak the same language. This is also the case for communication between electronic systems.  A common language is required to ensure that information flows seamlessly across different IT systems. In this re...

The Botswana Government wants to build a tech-driven economy, in other words, an economy where development is driven by the potential of available technologies and the innovations they unlock. The Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) shares that ambition and is leveraging technologies – more s...

Performance measurement BURS aims to be an agile organization and its strategic plan is updated every five years. To monitor implementation of the plan, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been developed for each business area. For example, under revenue collection, data related to the amount o...

Co-managed by the WCO and the IMF, the first International Survey on Customs Administration (ISOCA) was finalized in June 2020 and a report presenting some of the results was released in November 2021. Whilst a higher number of participants is required for the Survey to provide a global view of the...

There was strong initial commitment by Customs administrations to participate in the Survey, with 102 responding positively to the invitation of the WCO and the IMF (93 of them were WCO Members). However, 30 of them did not complete the Survey and 21 did so only partially. A number of reasons were a...

Some key lessons learned The first round of the Survey should be seen as a proof of concept demonstrating the feasibility of collecting Customs administrations’ data Although the database established during this first edition of the Survey presents opportunities for improvement, the Survey its...

Today, a lot of what we do generates data. These data can be analysed in real time thanks to hyperconnected infrastructures – a state of communications where electronic and computer devices of all kinds can communicate among each other to whatever extent each individual user desires – as well as...

Together on time A great deal has changed in the DGA since the publication of that article. In August 2020, a new administration took command and set the objective of turning the Dominican Republic into the logistics epicentre par excellence of the Caribbean region. ...

Starting from the premise that time is a key factor in attracting new cargo volumes and foreign investment into our country, the DGA launched the “Release in 24 Hours” (D24H) programme under the motto “Together on time” in June 2021. The main objective is to motivate all importers regardles...

In the June 2019 issue of WCO News,[1] the WCO Secretariat encouraged Customs to examine the use of geodata for more effective border management. In Niger, the Customs service recently financed a study into the use of satellite imagery to analyse cross-border trade flows. This paper presents the in...

The analytical method A general analysis of the entire territory of Niger was first carried out to identify the principal cross-border trade centres in Niger and in neighbouring countries, and the routes that link them. A total of 71 towns involved in cross-border trade in Niger were selected, ch...

One positive outcome from the COVID-19 pandemic was the boost in the digitization of interactions and operations in many sectors of society. Digitization is a relatively easy concept to understand. It is the process of converting information into a digital format, in other words, bits and bytes. A d...

The challenges behind limited adoption There are several reasons behind the current situation: The lack of coordination of digitization efforts has resulted in multiple “digital islands”, each with its own set of standards and rules regarding how to digitize the data and exchange it. In this ...