Crown Agents USA, Inc. hosted a luncheon on Thursday, September 10th to promote discussion on lessons-learned in Customs Reform and progress in Single Window environments among various donors headquartered in Washington, D.C.
CA-USA president, J. Michael Deal provided introductory remarks while Aiichiro Yamamoto, Washington representative for JICA, kicked-off the discussion with a presentation on JICA's efforts in fostering one-stop border posts. Mr. Yamamoto stated, "Customs and tax reform, such as the type undertaken by the Crown Agents, will enable developing countries to lead their own economic development through the realization of increased revenue."
Crown Agents' CTF senior advisors Jon Walden, Kevin Atkinson and Valentina Mintah presented on Crown Agents' experience. The presentation included lessons-learned from practical experience of long-term Mozambique and Angola customs reform projects, the theory of Single Window and using IT to facilitate trade. Ms. Mintah gave an example utilizing the Single Window platform to simplify the process for a small bead trader to access external markets and enable trade by reducing non-tariff barriers . Patricio Castro, IMF, having observed the Mozambique customs reform project and other similar programs led the commentary on both presentations. Mr. Castro discussed the importance of providing capacity building prior to implementing IT solutions.
Crown Agents assists clients to design and implement processes and procedures which ensures that revenue due is collected and income opportunities are maximized. By way of example, through collaboration with Crown Agents the Government of Angola increased revenue nearly tenfold between 2000 and 2007.
Increased income helps our clients to achieve economic development objectives, address national priorities and support poverty reduction.
We design and implement large and small scale programs to address your priorities in the following key areas:
- Training and capacity building
- Needs analysis, strategic planning and change management
- Legislation, policy and procedures
- IT and Technology