Questions/Answers

In 2003 the Oman Government launched the eOman strategy, to transform public sector service delivery in the Sultanate of Oman. The Directorate General of Customs Bayan (trade single window) initiative is one of the projects initiated under this umbrella. Bayan reforms public sector service delivery by transforming international trade reporting from paper-based processes, involving time consuming and inefficient visits to Government offices, to a single online portal offering whole of Government submission and process management. Bayan breaks the links between goods movement and reporting and Government office hours, by providing a 24*7 online portal for all participants in international trade. Ports, shipping companies, logistics service providers, traders, customs brokers, banks and members of the public are all users of the Bayan single window system. By offering e-services for international trade reporting and compliance Bayan has made it easier and faster for trade to meet their reporting and compliance requirements. Bayan also brings Government entities together for reporting, inspection management and information sharing. This allows government to differentiate between controls requiring border intervention and issues that can be dealt with away from the border. Thereby reducing the number and types of interventions made at the time of import/export to greatly reduce the time taken for goods to cross the border. The change to electronic reporting means that any citizen can do their import and export reporting from anywhere in Oman. It has also introduced common service level agreements across government procedures and allowed 24 hour reporting and management. Paper is no longer required in the import/export processes, nor are visits to Ministries, with the necessary queuing that requires. As a result, cargo dwell times in Oman have been halved at sea ports and reduced for air cargo and at land border crossing points.

The Directorate General of Customs, Royal Oman Police is pleased to submit Bayan “Electronic Single Window and Integrated Customs Management System” (ESW/ICMS)” for Category 2 of UNPSA 2018: Making Institutions Inclusive and Ensuring Participation in Decision Making. The objectives for this initiative are: • To simplify industry reporting through a single online portal providing comprehensive end-to-end self-service over the internet, including Customs declaration, permits online payment, cross-government reconciliation and settlement. • To replace paper-based reporting with electronic processes aligned with business practices. • To facilitate an efficient, effective and collaborative clearance process for trade through the elimination of duplicate processes, to reduce unnecessary variation and inconsistencies. • To align government information requirements with business procedures for more effective reporting and management. Enabling more efficient and faster clearance. • To allow separation of many government controls from goods movement, thereby reducing interventions made at the time of import/export. • To introduce intelligence led risk-based processing for government ministries involved in the regulation of cross border trade. • To enable the transition from government control at the time of import/export, which focus on case by case interventions, to controls based on information and compliance audit regimes. • To coordinate government interventions with joint inspection and clearance. • To provide a transparent and predictable border environment, while ensuring safety and security through simplified procedures and cooperation with business.

• The Bayan System project team coordinated engagement with trade and government ministries to promote dialogue and joint decision making during the design and development phases of the Bayan project. • Government border agencies collaborated to provide services through a single portal, to allow reuse information collected for differing purposes. Bayan workflow includes automated decision making, utilizing a rules engine to ensure consistency of treatment. • Following implementation consultation continued with industry and Bayan system changes were made based on industry feedback and advice. • Oman Customs have established a National Committee on Trade Facilitation to further strengthen the relationship between government and the business community. This committee will continue to seek the views of the trade community to manage and further develop Oman’s border reporting environment.

Bayan improves public service delivery in Oman in the following ways. • Bayan applies common reporting requirements, aligned to international standards. This encourages Omani business to use internationally understood data, which simplifies their ability to transfer information with foreign partners. • Bayan offers online services, meaning that any party can make their submissions, from any part of the country. This assists those in remote areas, people with disabilities and women to make government submissions, by removing the need for face to face encounters at government offices. Government offices can be difficult to access, and the transition to electronic processing removes opportunities for ad-hoc or variable practice in service delivery. • By removing the need for visits to Government office and introducing electronic submission, the Bayan system reduces unnecessary trips for document submission and approval. The transition to electronic reporting removes the need for paper copies and hardcopy record keeping. • Implementation of the Bayan system provides a key incentive for the Omani trade community to transform existing practices to international best practice, as many participants transition from paper to electronic. This enables the traders to better integrate with the international trade community, providing opportunities for growth and business development.

Bayan replaced old inefficient manual procedures delivered by multiple Government agencies, with a single access portal and standardized whole of Government service delivery for international trade reporting and management. The effect of Bayan is beginning to show in the World Bank Doing business measures, ranking of Oman. Before Bayan was introduced traders were required to make multiple physical visits to government offices to obtain clearance of trade goods. This was highly inefficient as traders or their representatives were required to spend much of their time queuing in various offices. The trade clearance processes were limited by office opening hours, at times requiring visits on consecutive days to achieve clearance. It was not possible for traders to get pre-clearance of their trade goods and they would often be subjected to conflicting requirements, based on the opinion of the official they were dealing with. This bred uncertainty in the industry often resulting in slow clearance and payment of demurrage or other unnecessary storage and handling fees. Clearance procedures were not standardized across the country, with some ports and border crossing points applying local practices and non-standard requirements.

Bayan accommodates pre-movement notification, which allows industry to complete government formalities before goods movement. • Cargo manifests can now be reported before goods arrive • Government permits, and licenses are applied for and approved before goods arrival • Customs declarations can now be reported and cleared before goods arrival. The Bayan System replaces existing manual procedures that required manual data entry and multiple trips to ministries. This saves time and money, making it easier and cheaper for traders to report their trade. By using Bayan, ministries can co-ordinate activities, improving government control and border management. The use of business intelligence enables fact-based decision making and policy formulation. A second key component of Bayan is the introduction of risk assessment supported by comprehensive audit programs. This provides multiple benefits, including moving controls away from the border, ensuring faster goods movement and release and more accurate assessment and fairer collection of Government revenues. Early study of the time taken to clear containers through the Port of Sohar (Oman’s largest port) show that containers are being released by Bayan 6 days earlier. This is achieved by the trade community reporting earlier and coordinating Government intervention.

The Bayan System is a pioneering innovation in Oman providing an online single window, bringing together services for 22 Ministries and managing Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) financial reporting requirements. Future developments include adoption of reporting for international transit (e-TIR) reporting, implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT) and Excise tax collection for the Ministry of Finance. The Bayan system leads collaboration between government Ministries in the Sultanate of Oman. The introduction of XML message submission for trade and between Ministries is a first for government administration in Oman. The forthcoming XML messaging between Bayan and port and terminal operators is a key to ensuring effective control and movement of goods under customs control. This paves the way for the planned national Port Community System project, which has recently been initiated. Bayan’s introduction of risk management and automated decision making are key enablers to shifting from government control by individuals in face to face contact, to programmed management. This management model uses intelligence, audit and past behavior, to lessen the burden on honest traders and focus attention on those with poor histories of compliance. Bayan innovates by easing reporting, sharing resources and focusing attention.

The Bayan System is a bespoke innovation, developed for Oman, based on international best practice conventions and recommendations, including the Trade Facilitation Agreement, World Customs Organization recommendations and UNECE advice. Bayan was designed by Oman Customs, in collaboration with industry, government Ministries and the IT service supplier CrimsonLogic. Advice was sought on how to best manage trade reporting and control borders, while facilitating the free movement of legitimate trade goods. Best practices were examined and recognizing that no two countries have identical legal regimes, these best practices were aligned with Oman’s legislation. CrimsonLogic designed and operated the Singapore whole of government TradeNet system. TradeNet is globally recognized as the world’s best practice B2G, B2B and G2B trade portal. The experience of CrimsonLogic and lessons learnt from TradeNet heavily influenced the design of Bayan. CrimsonLogic have implemented trade facilitation systems in 22 countries, their experience from these other implementations was also considered. This approach is enabling Oman Customs to implement change, that has taken more than 30 years in some countries, in one system and 10 years from inception to delivery.

Bayan is a self-funded government initiative in Oman. An initial scoping exercise was undertaken by consultants Booz & Co. This resulted in an RFP and open tender process from which CrimsonLogic was selected as the preferred vendor. CrimsonLogic provided resources from; • head office in Singapore, including their Trade Facilitation Office of internationally recognized experts, • the Bangalore development center where dedicated teams of analysts, developers and quality assurance personnel contributed. At the peak approximately 80 staff were involved in development, and • the Muscat based Project Management Office (PMO), which has averaged approximately 15 full time staff over the project life to date. Oman Customs coordinated activity through its own PMO and project team. This team worked under direction of the Bayan project committee, chaired by the Director General of Customs and includes members from customs, other branches of Royal Oman Police, business representatives and other ministries. The Bayan project committee reported to the Royal Oman Police steering committee, which funded, oversighted and directed the Bayan project. The project team worked closely with business representatives and government officers to determine requirements, design functionality and implement Bayan. z

Yes

The Bayan system provides an example of Government single window service delivery that is of interest to other Ministries in Oman and regional Customs administrations. Bayan was developed using the WCO and UNCEFACT recommendations on single window and border management. These recommendations are global standards, which have been adopted to varying degrees around the world. Compliance with these standards is a project deliverable.Regional customs administrations have visited Oman to observe Bayan operations and discuss scope. Despite having their own single window, provided by CrimsonLogic, Qatar customs were very interested in Bayan’s back-end financial management and reporting. Bayan is also of great interest to the National PCS project currently kicking off in Oman. The project team are keen to learn from Bayan’s experiences and the information exchanges established with Bayan stakeholders.

The Bayan System improves the management and control of goods for the government, by bringing border regulation into one system and coordinating the activities of border agencies, importers have better information on clearance and release of their goods. This increases trader confidence and in the long term encourage companies to route more of their trade through Oman this will open opportunities for new businesses and jobs. Customs controls will be regularly reviewed with stakeholders to reduce bottle-necks for trade and the increased use of risk management to target illicit goods will facilitate clearance of goods and reduce costs for traders. Customs import management has been split into border interventions and documentary checks. Documentary checks have largely become planned audit programs, separated from movement of goods so that document examination will not delay goods delivery. Border interventions focus on risk to security, health, public safety, and smuggling. This means that fewer goods need to be inspected, and more goods can be released before they arrive. Customs is establishing a user committee including Government Agencies, to oversight and direct future service enhancement. A call center to provide a primary contact point for the trade community, government entities and other stakeholders has been established. Customs provide regular and ongoing workshops and training to the stakeholders, including industry users. Bayan’s introduction of electronic reporting has reduced the number of physical visits to government offices and eliminated the need for paper record keeping and physical document submissions. The move to electronic reporting facilitates involvement in trade for minority and disadvantaged groups, such as people from remote areas and women. Providing opportunities by removing avenues for discrimination and barriers to access.

Bayan is sustainable over time as the implementation is technology neutral for its end users. The information display and data exchange standards utilized are compatible with a wide range of technologies and use international standards. Bayan uses the WCO Data Model for its data definitions and messaging standards. This standard was developed from the UNECE and UN CEFACT global data standards. This means that the information used in Bayan is generated from commonly used formats, as already adopted by the global business community. As e-communications for international trade increases in importance and volume the data specifications used by Bayan will become more critical and integral to standard business management. Use of the WCO Data Model is a key plank, as it has been developed through global collaboration. By using the WCO Data Model Oman’s traders will be well placed to communicate directly with the rest of the world, using these common data structures. As global trade adopts the use of B2B messaging traders will increasingly be able to use their business communications to satisfy government requirements, providing office efficiencies. Bayan also manages the Oman Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) program. As countries recognize each other’s programs and offer benefits to AEO members through mutual recognition agreements, Bayan will manage the international communications necessary for these relationships. CrimsonLogic have embarked on a knowledge transfer program where Omani Nationals are being trained in the maintenance and development of Bayan. This will contribute to the growth and professionalism of the local IT industry.

No

Throughout the project stakeholder workshops were conducted to gather thoughts on how the Bayan System should cater to their needs. The information from these sessions was modelled for inclusion into the design of the Bayan systems and then re-validated with stakeholders to validate their requests and assumptions. During the project testing phase, stakeholders were also invited to conduct acceptance tests for the functions related to their areas of responsibility. Throughout this phase multiple changes were made to better fit the Bayan systems to real world needs and procedures. The Bayan system allows government entities to access the system through the Customs portal or by Host-to-Host integration, to manage their services. Industry users apply for Government Services through the ESW online portal or by XML message exchanges and decisions are notified by the various government stakeholders through Bayan system responses. At the request of stakeholders’ responses can be sent through multiple channels, such as SMS, email and H2H message exchanges. Memoranda of Understanding have been negotiated between Customs and Government Ministries to ensure that community expectations for service delivery are met and maintained. Customs continue to consult with industry over the use and future development of the Bayan systems. This is managed through formal consultation groups and less formal discussions with stakeholders to gauge their satisfaction with Bayan and identify areas for service delivery and process improvement. Stakeholders consulted during the Bayan processes include: • Importers and Exporters • Customs Brokers • Shipping & Vessel Agents • Freight Forwarders • Ground Handlers • Airlines • Port Authorities • Container Terminal Operators • Warehouse Operators • Banks • Police Directorates of IT, Traffic, CID, Civil Status, Passport/Residence and Coast Guard • Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries, Commerce and Industry, Environment and Climate, Health, Manpower, Public Prosecution, Transport and Communications, Foreign affairs and Finance. • Chamber of commerce • IT Authority • Gulf Co-operation Council

ESW/ICMS has contributed to Oman’s economy and trade performance as evidenced from the improved ranking based on Doing Business 2018 report (Trading Across Borders indicator, from 71 in 2016 to 67 in 2017). Moving forward, the Directorate General of Customs (DGC) aims to lower the cargo inspection rate to less than 5 percent through increased reliance on advanced reporting and risk management. Better understanding of data analytic techniques, using Bayan data, will enable improvements to policy planning to propel Oman’s economy to further improve Oman’s clearance procedures. A key lesson learnt in the Bayan project was the importance of open dialog. Throughout development of the Bayan system Customs initiated and maintained stakeholder consultation initiatives, at a higher level than previously attempted. Consultation was conducted with all stakeholders of the Bayan systems including Government and the business community. This degree of inclusion influenced the design and development of the Bayan processes and procedures, allowing creation of a system that better met the needs of Government and business stakeholders. By listening to "real life" users the Bayan team were able to avoid mistakes in system design that would have caused problems with live reporting. An outcome of this is much stronger relationships between Customs, business and other border control agencies. This reflects in ongoing initiatives to make more effective use of Bayan, through the current implementation of One Stop Border Shops at main ports, which is bringing multiple agency services, such as inspection, under one roof. The Bayan systems one stop concept is also allowing the re-use of documents by multiple agencies, from a single submission by traders. This has eased the regulatory reporting burden on traders, simplifying their roles and will further accelerate border clearances.