THE Trade Transactions Public Private Dialogue Body (PPDB), which includes the Customs House Brokers Association of Guyana, the Private Sector Commission (PSC), the Shipping Association of Guyana, Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce and import/export licensing agencies, has begun negotiations on the application of the Internet to streamline procedures for their transactions. The talks began earlier this week and stakeholders involved are optimistic about the benefits to all who have to interface with  Customs in relation to imports, exports.
The negotiating group, through its National Competitive Strategy Unit (NCSU), has been advocating, for the past two years, the use, by the Customs Department, of a single window automated processing system (SWAPS).
The expected outcome is a streamlined procedure, in the Customs Department, for processing import and export licences and clearance and release of goods.
The SWAPS is intended to electronically link licensing bodies that account for transactions associated with Guyana’s trade to the Guyana Revenue Authority’s (GRA’s) Total Revenue Integrated Processing System (TRIPS).
This automation is being promoted to drastically reduce the cost and time incurred by importers, exporters, customs brokers and even members of the public involved in the clearance of imports and exports.
Alluding to the modernising of  Customs systems, in Parliament earlier this year, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh had said that SWAPS will reduce the time required to process an import/export licence from between three and five working days to one.
“It will simplify, harmonise and electronically integrate the business processes of the licensing bodies that account for the transactions associated with Guyana’s trade,” he stated.
Minister Singh said SWAPS would also strengthen the GRA’s approach to detecting false declarations and the overall aim is to remove  bottlenecks to trade being experienced under current manual methodologies being employed by the Customs Department.
People in business have long complained about lengthy Customs processes and the attached costs for securing import and export licences.
The call, by stakeholders, to utilise the Internet, evolved into the project called SWAPS and the PPDB, through its NCSU, secured funding for it, in 2009, from the Caribbean Aid for Trade and Regional Integration Trust Fund and the Government of Guyana/Inter-
American Development Bank (GOG/IDB) Support for Competitiveness Programme.
The completion and consequent modernisation of Customs methods are anticipated to take two years.