KARACHI: The Towel Manufacturers Association of Pakistan has organized a seminar on Pakistan Single Window (PSW) facility for its members the other day in the city. The session was held at the TMA's Mehboob Alam Lari Auditorium and a large number of towel makers-exporters of the association attended to become aware of the PSW system.
Chief Domain Officer PSW, Naveed Abbas Memon told the seminar that the facility will help reduce time, cost, and complexity to ensure ease of business, besides supporting the government agencies in adopting an integrated risk management approach for an efficient enforcement of control on cross border trade.
Under the PSW platform, he said, an ICT-based port community system will also be established and all stakeholders including FIA, Customs, terminal operators, and others will be integrated for efficient cargo management at seaports, airports, dry ports, and land border crossings.
All major components of the PSW will be ready by June 2022 whereas a total of 74 departments will be integrated into the system. Naveed Abbas Memon said that the implementation of PSW by June 2022 will enable Pakistan to achieve compliance with WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement besides helping to unlock its potential in becoming a hub for trade and transit.
He informed that more than 10,000 registrations have been received so far in the PSW portal whereas 27 banks will also be integrated with PSW which would save the business community from visiting banks to fulfill the requirement of Export and Import forms. Right now in the first phase, we have five large banks integrated.
Naveed said that another major objective was to establish and maintain a world-class cross border trade information portal under the PSW platform. The information portal is aimed to help Pakistan integrate to other National, Regional, and Global Single Window Systems related to cross border trade, he added.
The PSW will not only ensure a relief but also reduce the cost of business, besides helping simplify the tedious procedures, human interaction, and departmental paperwork. The PSW is expected to bring the entire trade of Pakistan to a single platform which would also help improve the country's tax base.
He advised the TMA to disseminate information about the registration of their entity at the PSW. He urged the towel makers association to let the PSW concerned officias if anyone confronts registration issues in this regard and assured them of solving their problems on a priority basis.
Kamran Alam, Vice Chairman TMA, appreciated efforts for a close liaison between the export sectors and the government concerned institutions. The PSW, he said, will bring about a confidence build of the export sectors on the government. He said that the exporters' problems should be solved on a preferential basis since they are the economy's backbone.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021