Proceedings of the 14th Meeting of
The COMCEC Trade Working Group
16
Mr. AYATI started his speech with pointing out that “the transit is a base of trade and trade is
base of development, then to achieve development in OIC countries we should pay attention to
facilitate transit.” Then, he introduced briefly the customs procedures in Iran before 1997. He
pointed out that there were 1.500.000 declarations in paper based system except TIR carnets in
140 customs offices. Also, he mentioned that average 30 documents were required for each
declaration including various permits, authentication documents. He added that average annual
consumption was around 45 million papers and the documents must be archived around 10
years.
Furthermore, Mr. AYATI highlighted that Iran Customs Administration has started the
implementation of ASYCUDA system since 1997. He stated that due to some limitations in
ASYCUDA, Iran Customs Administration decided to implement its own national system which is
Integrated Customs System (ICS) in 2013 and by implementation of ICS data entry with pre-
declaration is possible any time.
He continued his presentation with sharing information regarding the benefits of ICS. He
mentioned that by running a single window, ICS has linked 29 relevant organizations thus there
is not a risk for forging anymore. Also, he added that thanks to the fully paperless system, the
charges have been reduced. He highlighted that the data exchange between departure and
destination has expedited the discharge process in transit.
Mr. AYATI emphasized the e-TIR project which is a project initiated in 2014 with Turkey. He
stated that the aimof the project is to bring the TIR procedure to be a computerized environment
further enhancing the security and efficiency of the TIR system. He pointed out that fully digital
version of the project is underway.
In his closing remarks, Mr. AYATI emphasized the importance of the digitalization in transit. He
expressed that Iran extended its digital infrastructure by e-TIR project with neighbouring
countries and highlighted the readiness to share Iran’s valuable experience in digitalization with
the OIC member countries.
7.3. Malaysia
Ms. Ramlah MUKHTAR, Senior Assistant Director of Custom from Royal Customs Department in
Malaysia, made a presentation regarding a pilot country case of ASEAN Customs Transit System
(ACTS).
At the beginning of the presentation, Ms. MUKHTAR briefed the participants on ASEAN and its
contracting parties which are Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore,
Vietnam, Laos, Philippines and Brunei Darussalam.
Ms. MUKHTAR shared information regarding the ASEAN Framework Agreement on the
Facilitation of Goods in Transit (AFAFGIT). She stated the agreement was signed on 1998 in