Industry wants right operational model for NSW | Daily News
Shipping and Logistics Sector

Industry wants right operational model for NSW

Sri Lanka’s shipping and logistics industry professionals stressed the need to explore the sustainability and operational model of National Single Window (NSW) platform immediately.

“There is a cost when it comes to maintaining the NSW and it is imperative to determine whether operator could be a specialized government agency, Government Corporation or Public –Private Partnership,” said Anoma Ranasinghe, General Manager at McLarens Group.

Making a presentation on Going Paperless; Sri Lanka Way Forward’, at the Asia Logistics Forum held in Colombo this week, she said the effective implementation of NSW will significantly reduce time, cost and documents required for trading. Furthermore, the plan is to bring 30 plus government regulatory agencies involved in imports and exports on board under the NSW platform by almost 2019.

In July 2018, Sri Lanka launched NSW to facilitate the trading community, giving access to online system of regulatory agencies involved in exports and imports. NSW allows exporters and importers to submit documents at single location or entry point to fulfill all trade related regulatory requirements, thereby facilitating cross border trade.

She said further that currently Sri Lanka got close to the completion of automation of customs and port procedures while several countries in the world as well as Asia and Pacific region have elevated themselves from this stage and are now in the process of introducing paperless trade across borders. “Administrative costs are becoming higher than the transport cost in shipping and logistics industry in Sri Lanka. When dealing with papers, enormous costs are incurred when handling international trade related documents.

However, shipping and freight forwarding are fast becoming paperless business; the question is whether Sri Lanka is geared for these developments. I would say we are slow in our progress, but steady,” she said.

She said that impact study published by UN shows that the implementation of paperless trade could help Sri Lanka to reduce its trade time up to 25% and boost exports by 7-8%. Also the report highlights it will also help reduce Sri Lanka’s overall cost of trade by US $ 240 million a year.


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