| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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Establish an Integrated Trade Portal System
Korea Customs' integrated trade portal system, UNI-PASS, provided innovative high quality trade services to citizens and trading companies. By providing 100% e-documents services as well as real-time information in the entire import/export clearance process to citizens and trading companies, transparency and reliability of trade services were improved. One-stop trade services were provided through the linkage of trade-related OGAs and private businesses such as banks, airlines, shippers, and carriers.
Implement Systematic Service Improvements
To collect sufficient opinions from citizens and trading companies and to provide them enough time to become familiar with the system, a comprehensive master plan with 5 phases was established and systematic improvements in services were implemented starting in 1992. The comprehensive phased master plan was set up with the active support of the Commissioner of Korea Customs who was the chief executive of the plan.
Phase 1, the “comprehensive 6 year plan for automated clearance based on EDI” was established in 1992 and the computerization of the Customs' internal process made the clearance process greatly simplified. By 1998, the entire import/export process became 100% computerized with the EDI method and established paperless import/export systems.
Phase 2, the “3 year plan to build the information management system for administration” was established in 2000. The efficiency and productivity of administration were enhanced by adopting a knowledge management system which enabled sharing and utilization of administrative information for the improved trade services, and by adopting an integrated information system for systematic risk management such as selectivity of high-risk cargo and logistics facilitation.
Phase 3, the “3 year plan for informatization in administration” was established in 2003. The Internet-based e-clearance system established by 2005 laid down a platform to provide all public services as well as trade services through the Internet. A customer relationship management system was adopted in order to manage and apply opinions and feedback from citizens and trading companies.
Phase 4, the “informatization strategy plan to respond to ubiquitous environment” was established in 2006 for the purpose of setting up an integrated clearance logistics portal to provide real-time global logistics information service to citizens and businesses. This enhanced predictability of logistics and transparency of administration.
Phase 5, the “BPR/ISP plan for the Customs in the 21st century" was established in 2009 and an integrated e-clearance portal service system was set up for improved national trade services.
Provide One-stop Trade Services by Linking Systems through Enhanced Partnerships among Trade Related Agencies
Korea Customs built a single window system for clearance within the trade portal service system. It enabled transferring information to agencies for import/export approval after declarations were submitted to the Customs. Duplicate submission of applications to agencies for import/export approval and import/export declarations to the Customs by citizens and trading companies was prevented in the cases of importing/exporting goods subject to approval. In this system reports only need to be submitted once to the Customs because necessary information from agencies for import/export approval, related to food, medicine, animals and plants is shared in partnership with the relevant agencies. This system made it possible to reduce clearance process time while maintaining the authority of relevant agencies and made it significantly convenient for citizens and trading companies. Korea Customs built a system which is easy for the public to use based on its experience. A task force was organized and the system was improved through partnerships with agencies for import/export approval to encourage active participation.
Communicate with Stake-holders
During development, Korea Customs set up several mechanisms such as the Korea Customs web site, the manager's email, a telephone line through which suggestions and opinions can be expressed, regardless of the time or place, concerning improvements of trade services. Through regular trade-related conversations with citizens and trading companies, user training, and surveys, opinions and feedback from citizens and trading companies were collected at the time of system development and after the completion of the system. A consultation body composed of trade-related government agencies and associations was organized in order to provide high quality services.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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This project was critical at the national level for the purpose of providing national trade services to 260,000 citizens and trading companies. Korea Customs built a cooperation system with trade-related government agencies, aiming at integrated provision of trade services. To secure strong momentum for the project, a comprehensive master plan in 5 phases was set up and systematically implemented starting in 1992 in partnership with relevant agencies including Executive Office of the President, and Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
A public-private strategic task force for informatization was organized, which was composed of 300 representatives from 30 trade-related government agencies, 20 system developers, and trade-related associations. This task force planned the project, collected opinions from relevant agencies, persuaded stake-holders, and built the system.
For successful establishment of the system, Korea Customs benchmarked from countries such as the U.S., Japan, and Australia and informatization data of 30 countries, such as their system development status, was collected through Korea Customs' attaches.
In the public sector, 38 trade-related government agencies, such as Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Information and Communication, Seed Association, and Radio Research Laboratory, as well as associations have established a cooperation system with Korea Customs. Through this cooperation, systems of agencies for import/export approval and UNI-PASS were linked and contributed to providing one-stop trade services.
In the private sector, opinions on improvement of services have been continuously gathered through a public-private consultation body composed of representatives of 260,000 stake-holders in trade such as import/export businesses, airlines, shippers, logistics companies, forwarders, banks, and e-document agents. Their opinions have been applied to the system for improvement of integrated trade services.
During system development, periodic reviews have been given by the internal review division and external agencies, such as Prime Minister's Office, and Ministry of Security and Public Administration, and results of the reviews were applied to the system.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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1. Application of Innovative Technologies and Work Process
UNI-PASS is a system which can be accessed on a ship in the sea, on a PC and a cell phone abroad at any time, anywhere, on any device(3 Anys) 24 hours a day all year around through EDI.
The knowledge and experience accumulated by individual Customs officers' were directly integrated into the system to contribute to the improvement of the entire system. It was built as an organic system through which the general public and trading companies can also easily use the Internet UNI-PASS portal to obtain information and exchange opinions. A patent on UNI-PASS was registered in June 2006 as a “system which implements an e-clearance method”. In May 2010, Korea Customs obtained a patent on the “early warning control system to recover the e-clearance system from its operational failures”. UNI-PASS adopted international standards such as Data Model of the WCO which 179 Members to the WCO have adopted.
2. Systematic Implementation of the Project through the Informatization Division
Korea Customs reorganized its structure in April 1990 and elevated the head of informatization division from the deputy director level to the director general level in order to establish a trade portal system. The informatization project was carried out by a team composed of the Commissioner, Director General of Informatization Bureau, and officers in charge of computerization. Particularly, the Director General of Informatization Bureau, as a chief information management officer(CIO) of Korea Customs, was the chairperson of the implementation commission for a trade portal system. The implementation commission conducted deliberations and decision-making on major issues in the process of system implementation, and was in charge of cross-government informatization and linking systems as well as supervising system developers for systematic implementation of the project.
3. Maximizing Completeness of the Project by Creating a Cooperation System with the Best Field Experts in the Public and Private Sectors
The UNI-PASS system can be seen as a result of incorporating various areas such as trade, clearance, finance, and logistics. With the fullest support of the highest-level decision-maker in Korea Customs, a task force was organized with specialized officers in the areas of trade, logistics, and IT in the center. Officers with decades of experience working in trade-related administration, and development companies' best experts in each function of the system, created a cooperation system and decided the scope of their work. In the implementation of the project, problems were solved through proactive communication. Especially in the process of project planning, designing, implementation, and operation, opinions of citizens and trading companies as well as relevant agencies were actively collected to meet all stake-holders' needs. In addition, through enterprise architecture(EA), information resources such as work, data, and budget, technologies were more efficiently managed from the stage of system development. Through prevention of duplication among systems and integration of functions, the effectiveness of the project was maximized. After completion of system development, usage analysis and customers' needs were collected and used to improve the system.
4. Establishment of the Phased Master Plan for Improvement of Trade Services, and Securing Budget Systematically
Korea Customs set up and implemented a medium and long-term master plan in 5 phases for the purpose of a project which was to improve trade services starting from 1992. Korea Customs planed the budget for the project yearly and gave an explanation to the budget compilation division. After a budget deliberation by the National Assembly, the relevant budget was secured. Through strict deliberations by the National Assembly and the Board of Audit and Inspection, the budget was spent dissipation-free accordingly by the budget plan.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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1. Building the Integrated Trade Portal System, UNI-PASS
Korea Customs has linked 260,000 businesses in the logistics supply chain including import/export businesses, customs brokers, airlines, shippers, forwarders, and carriers. From that, Korea Customs has completed an integrated trade portal system which provides one-stop clearance services by linking with work processes related to national trade such as import, export, duty drawback, bonded transport, approval for import/export, and banking to citizens and trading companies regardless of the time or place. With a single sign-on by citizens and trading companies, all public services related to trade can be processed, and real-time information is provided on the status of clearance progress of goods. Citizens and trading companies also are provided with SMS and email notification in real time about the progress of their trade through the integrated logistics information service in the portal system. In addition, 197 categories of trade information services are provided by the Customs such as 23 types of advance notification services in administration, as well as the services for import/export records, duty drawback records, and tax payment records. These services are all provided in real time.
2. Simplification of Clearance Procedures and Reduction of Clearance Process Time with a 100% E-clearance System
Paperless 100% e-clearance by Korea Customs has provided convenience in import/export clearance to 260,000 citizens and trading companies. With 5,800 cases of trade work per year processed, logistics costs for citizens and trading companies are greatly decreased due to dramatically reduced import/export clearance time. Expedited clearance and reduced logistics costs were the benefits to citizens and trading companies from UNI-PASS which was built by Korea Customs and significantly cut down the processing time for trade related services. This improvement raised competitiveness of businesses in Korea and greatly contributed to the development of Korea to become the center of the logistics in Northeast Asia.
3. Provision of Single Window Services from the Integrated Linkage among Trade-related Agencies
Korea Customs has centralized all 55 types of reporting windows by linking the systems in partnership with 38 agencies for import/export approval, related to trade including Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. One-stop services became possible with a single submission of import/export declarations and approval requests for import/export in the portal system. By integrating systems of trade-related agencies, these improved services have processed about 4.68 million approval requests for import/export with the one-stop services in the trade portal system between 2006 and 2013.
4. Disclosure of Clearance Process Information in Real Time and Creation of Channels to Collect Trade-related Stake-holders' Opinions
Korea Customs has made the clearance process information available to citizens and businesses through the Internet, and through cell phone text messages for citizens and businesses with difficulty accessing the Internet. By providing 275 types of documents and 197 categories of clearance process information, transparency of administration was raised. By actively collecting opinions of citizens and trading companies through the portal system, email, and the counselling center, the reliability of administration also improved.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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1. Enactment of Legislation for Informatization and Operation of the Project Committee
With a view to efficiently managing Customs resources for informatization and maximizing the outcomes of investment for informatization, a law on informatization of customs administration was legislated and sub-provisions were made and implemented. Due to this law, the e-clearance System Implementation Project Committee was formed with the Vice Commissioner of Korea Customs as a chairperson to supervise work on the e-clearance system. The e-clearance System Implementation Working Group was formed with the Director General of Information Management and International Cooperation Bureau as a chairperson to guide deliberations and make decisions on major issues. The Project Committee was the supreme decision-making body which was related to cross-government informatization and collection of opinions of external users. It also supervised the entire informatization of the Customs. The Working Group conducted field work under the Committee. A general supervision team for system development, and a task force for e-clearance management composed of chief architects, experts in the private sector, were organized to analyze the operational status of the system monthly and to collect customers' needs for improvement of the system.
2. Assessment of Citizens and Trading Companies on the Trade Portal Service System
Monitoring and assessments have been given by citizens and trading companies since 2002 in the first and last half of the year on the operation of the UNI-PASS system of Korea Customs. Korea Customs outsourced survey work to an external specialized organization to conduct surveys by interview, telephone, mail, and email of citizens and trading companies who are UNI-PASS users, in order to assess satisfaction in the operation of UNI-PASS and in the service items in each area for the purpose of collecting opinions on improvement of the system and services.
3. Assessment by ISO on the Operation of the UNI-PASS System
Korea Customs has obtained ISO 20000 certification for the first time in the world in 2006 in the trade portal service system area. Since then, Korea Customs' UNI-PASS has been assessed by ISO every 3 years on its operational system for customer management such as UNI-PASS services, and IT service operation such as security compliance procedures, in order to verify its compliance with international standards in the level of service management and operation in its entire procedures. Additionally, a post audit related to the certification has been conducted biannually on the operational management of UNI-PASS.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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Korea Customs has had a number of difficulties in implementing the project for the integrated trade portal system, UNI-PASS, which started in 1992. The biggest difficulty was to build the most optimal system satisfying needs of all stake-holders, including trade-related government agencies, banks, airlines, shippers, carriers, customs brokers, logistics companies, and citizens and trading companies, for the purpose of providing integrated trade services. On top of that, internally in the Customs, some officers had objections against dramatic change in the work environment by adopting the new system and the new trade work process with 100% e-documents because they had concerns with reduction of their discretion and authority.
A big effort was made to continue communicating with each stake-holder and to collect opinions in order to encourage participation in the project for the purpose of building a system which provides high quality trade services to citizens and trading companies.
As for trade-related government agencies, their concern was also reduction of their authority by linking their systems with the Customs. Because of that concern, they did not agree to link the systems in the beginning of the project despite the convenience for citizens and trading companies. Korea Customs has made this project as the cross-government project “task for logistics trade facilitation in Northeast Asia” led by the President, and built an organic cooperation network with trade-related government agencies and associations. The linkage among the systems was accomplished after continued communication and persistent persuasion stressing the need for linking the systems.
Strong objections were raised by EDI-based e-document agents and customs brokers from concerns about their business interests, such as broker's fees, because the UNI-PASS system is an Internet-based trade service portal system which anyone with Internet access can use. Korea Customs made efforts to set up a public-private consultation body through which 260,000 trade stake-holders, such as citizens, trading companies, airlines, shippers, logistics companies, forwarders, banks, e-document agents, and customs brokers, can participate. Through this public-private consultation body, Korea Customs has continued to listen to opinions on improvements for the system and they were reflected in UNI-PASS to improve integrated trade services to all stake-holders' satisfaction.
Through continuous workshops and briefing sessions for internal Customs officers, the system implementation project to improve trade services made it possible to provide high quality administrative services to citizens and trading companies. By preventing corruption factors and raising transparency in administration, trust from citizens and trading companies was gained. Internal objections were overcome with the emphasis that work efficiency would be maximized by the electronic work process, and with the incentives given to excellent agencies.
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