The FINANCIAL — The Trade Facilitation System created by the Data Exchange Agency, Ministry of Justice of Georgia, will reduce costs by 4.5 million and will replace 1 million paper documents annually, according to the Data Exchange Agency. It will guarantee the confidentiality of commercial information.
Established in 2010 the Data Exchange Agency works in three main directions: e-Government development; Data exchange infrastructure and related projects; and thirdly, information and cyber security.
“There is a great desire from the Data Exchange Agency to export e-government to other countries, but for the time being we have not yet had any negotiations on this,” Irakli Gvenetadze, Chairman of the Data Exchange Agency, told The FINANCIAL.
“Of course there are some risks related to this system, but the Data Exchange Agency is trying to eradicate these. The risks are related to the potential unauthorized access or breaking-in of the System. The Agency is therefore trying to improve the System. Personnel are currently studying at university to receive the related education to be able to work adequately with it. The System reduces time spent, is effective and also reduces the number of mistakes that occur,” Gvenetadze added.
“The Data Exchange Agency gets the information, transforms it and then gives it to the appropriate institution. After it gets an answer it resends the information back to the organization. The System will do this whole job. The Government has invested a minimum of USD 4 million in this project,” Gvenetadze said.
TFS is an information system which provides connections to various operation programmes safely and in time. The System was created by the Data Exchange Agency with the help of the Economic Prosperity Initiative (EPI). With the help of this system information would be changed electronically. Via the net it would be possible to exchange information between private sectors as well as within the sectors, according to the Data Exchange Agency.
TFS reduces the amount of time and costs related to international trade and transportation document preparation. The System helps the organizations which will be involved in this system to improve their competitive position, according to the Data Exchange Agency.
“The System would be large and capacious. It is divided into three stages. The first stage involves the import of cargo containers by sea via ports in Georgia and customs processes. For now the project is in the first stage and by the end of March or beginning of April will begin its operations. After this, by the end of the year, there will be another stage which will involve all the products that will be imported and exported,” Gvenetadze said.
“This system will replace about 1 million paper documents. Countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and The United States are already using it, and they all work according to it. The improvement of the System doesn’t mean that it will only work inside the country, but it will also communicate with the systems of other countries, of course only those that have such a system. The System helps the whole process to be more transparent,” he added.
“The main users of this system would be forwarding firms, carriers, who number at more than 300,” said Bondo Bolkvadze, Customs and Trade Facilitation Manager, EPI. “Besides this there are 11marine lines, and an international carrier line, which would also be involved, also both ports and the Georgian Railway.”
“As for the company’s involvement, the Data Exchange Agency along with the Association of Freight Forwarders, leads a process which involves, on the one hand, trainings for potential participants, and on the other hand contributes to the popularization of the System,” he said.
“The service will be paid, the income received from the price of the System will be spent on the System’s improvement. And it would be much cheaper than the cost of works nowadays. The tariff wouldn’t be calculated to make profit,” he added.
“For now we are actively working with Poti Port and Batumi Port, and in terms of the carriers of sea lines, we are working with all of them,” said Nikoloz Gagnidze, Head of the Data Exchange Infrastructure Division, Data Exchange Agency. “In the first stage 3 or 4 of them will be involved in the System; in total they number 11. Then step by step all of them will become involved. It would be impossible for all members to get involved in this system at the same time,” Gagnidze said.
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