Exceptional achievements for Dubai Customs in 2020
Dubai Customs has culminated its efforts to develop customs work, in support of the sustainable economic development process in the United Arab Emirates, by achieving new pioneering achievements in the year 2020 despite the challenges of the global crisis resulting from the Covid 19 pandemic, and the department has advanced to transform these challenges into opportunities and achievements in implementation of the wise leadership directives and the vision of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai "by working to promote the process of sustainable economic development to consolidate the global position of the UAE.
Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director General of Dubai Customs, said in statements to the official Emirati news agency, "WAM", that the department has kept pace with the successive pioneering achievements of the UAE in 2020, the year of preparation for the fifty, despite the challenges of "Corona" that cast a shadow over the whole world as Dubai's trade preserved. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued its momentum, and recorded a strong growth in the number of customs transactions, and its advanced technologies represented the solid structure from which it launched its business, especially during periods of closure and remote work.
The department has also launched several customs projects that support its direction to play a major role in future commercial transformations. During the past year, the department officially launched a cross-border e-commerce platform that paves the way for attracting more logistics services and e-commerce companies .. And on the level of community protection, Dubai Customs launched the "fence" initiative. The pioneering security forces achieved through an integrated smart system, and the drug traffickers were dealt painful blows by implementing specific controls.
He affirmed their continuity in implementing the department's strategy to lead the customs sector by developing technical customs systems that facilitate customs operations and accelerate the flow of travelers, considering that the International Monetary Fund's praise of the Department's technologies, especially in blockchain systems, is a message of pride that Dubai Customs cherishes and pushes it to continue efforts towards its vision. To be the leading customs administration in the world supporting legitimate trade.
The value of Dubai's non-oil foreign trade in the first half of the year 2020 amounted to about 551 billion dirhams, distributed to imports worth 320 billion dirhams, exports worth 77 billion dirhams, and re-exports worth 154 billion dirhams .. While the amount of goods in Dubai's foreign trade during this period reached 44 million. Tons were distributed by 30 million tons for imports, 8 million tons for exports and 6 million tons for re-exports.
The strong growth in customs transactions completed by Dubai Customs, by 23 percent during the past year 2020 compared to 2019, shows the ability of the local economy to turn challenges into realized opportunities.
Dubai Customs is reaping the fruits of successful investment in advanced technologies and technological applications in recent years, and business proceeded as usual without any obstacles during the remote and home employee work phase. Automatic electronic approval was granted without any human intervention for about 97 percent of customs transactions related to clearance and release.
Shipments The number of minutes of voice chats for employees through the "Teams" program reached 3.1 million minutes, and the total number of messages sent was 440 thousand messages, the number of times the program was used more than 615 thousand times, the total of individual and group communications was about 109 thousand calls, and the number of minutes used in screen sharing was 719 thousand minutes within The period from 15 March to 5 May.
Dubai Customs has provided a work environment from home and remotely that enhances the productivity of employees and contains all the necessary tools that they need through an integrated system of various electronic systems such as the “virtual desktop” program, the “virtual computer” in addition to the “Mizlai” system and the Microsoft Teams application. 18 thousand meetings were held. For Dubai Customs through the program, the percentage of information exchange through the TIMES program during the month of March was 15% compared to 85% for e-mail, and in April the percentage of reliance on the program increased to 34% compared to 66% for e-mail.
The department launched a number of specific initiatives to support a healthy environment at work, including the provision of 200 devices to sterilize mobile phones for all departments, divisions and customs centers affiliated to it, with the aim of safety and protection of employees from the risk of virus transmission, 21 safety stations to measure temperature and follow up the employee's health status during his work and also launch specific initiatives During the Corona pandemic and the initiative of the safe customs inspector to maintain customs inspection staff during work.
As part of its efforts to mitigate the effects of the global outbreak of the new Corona virus Covid-19 and its support for the investment and trade environment by implementing economic stimulus packages, Dubai Customs implemented an initiative to reduce the financial fines achieved on customs cases discovered or committed before the date of 03/31/2020 by 80 percent of the fines. This is in a step that will contribute to facilitating doing business and supporting investors and merchants. Dubai Customs has also launched an incentive package to cancel fines for delaying renewal / canceling of the customs broker card.
The department also won the first place in the world and won the "Best Project Management Entity in the World 2020" award in the international competition organized by the "PMO Global Alliance" and Dubai Customs has outperformed several institutions from 20 countries around the world represented by government agencies and private companies and establish their future projects.
On the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution such as artificial intelligence and blockchain to facilitate operations and automate customs procedures to reduce costs for dealers in order to support their investments.
The Future Center for Research and Development in the department received an accredited innovation laboratory certificate from the Global Innovation Institute, based in the United States of America, to become the first customs department in the world to obtain this global accreditation.
The Global Innovation Institute granted the "Future Center" a certification of accreditation after conducting a number of evaluation processes, including strategy and support for the innovation system, design, infrastructure, security, safety, resources and innovation maturity, as the Global Institute for Innovation is considered a global leader in the field of accreditation, which manages a comprehensive innovation accreditation program for individuals and institutions.
The number of qualitative innovations developed by Dubai Customs in the year 2020 amounted to about 32 innovations, bringing the total number of quality innovations in the department from 2010 to 2020 to 237 innovations, while the total number of awards in the field of excellence, creativity and innovation in the year 2020 amounted to about 17 awards, bringing the total number of awards For which the circuit won 127 awards.
The number of intellectual property disputes at Dubai Customs in the year 2020 reached 255 cases, and the number of awareness-raising events organized by the Intellectual Property Rights Protection Department during this period reached about 56 activities that included 2,667 beneficiaries from school students, supervisors, government employees and inspectors, while the number of trademarks reached The new ones registered with the department are 367 trademarks, and the number of new registered agencies is 203 commercial agencies. 8 knowledge assets have been registered for the inventions and innovations supporting the development of the customs work that were developed by the department and its employees. The counterfeit goods were also confiscated and recycled for 59 trademarks, and the amount of goods covered by recycling reached 161. Alfa and 753 pieces of creative goods.
The department launched the "fence" project, an innovative and smart initiative to monitor customs ports in the emirate of Dubai. The initiative relies on modern technologies such as artificial intelligence and advanced devices to detect prohibited materials, explosives, and a drone aircraft. It also depends on the human element present around the clock, seven days a week, in addition to the customs dogs unit. k9 "support in the field targeting and search operations within the customs campus.
The initiative aims to enhance security measures for the emirate of Dubai and the UAE, support the stability and protection of society from security and health risks, by controlling the movement of goods and goods, detecting and tracking smugglers, in addition to facilitating commercial operations and supporting the global supply chain in a way that establishes Dubai's leading position in legitimate trade.
As part of the "safe homeland" campaign launched by the Maritime Customs Centers Administration to raise the readiness of its customs centers, the Al Khor Customs Center and Deira Port implemented the largest seizure in terms of the volume and quantity of narcotic substances witnessed in the coastal ports, as the total amount of various types of narcotic drugs that were seized was about 662 kilograms. It was distributed into crystal with a quantity of 306.44 kg, hashish and opium in an amount of 201.44 kg, pills and psychotropic substances in an amount of 122.72 kg, and heroin in an amount of 32.62 kg.
The "Safe Homeland" campaign also continued painful blows to drug traffickers and thwarted their attempts to smuggle narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances through the customs outlets of the Emirate of Dubai, where the "fence" unit, in cooperation with the staff of inspectors at the Hamriyah Customs Center, managed to remove a container containing 76.31 kilograms of narcotic substances worth The estimate is about 47.5 million dirhams, distributed about 30.15 kilograms of "crystal" and 46.16 kilograms of hashish, which were hidden in a new and innovative way around the container.
Dubai Customs plays a major role in the strategy of Dubai, the capital of the new economy by supporting future economy companies, the most important of which are e-commerce companies, developing trade facilities and reducing costs to establish regional centers for them in Dubai, as Dubai Customs is working to develop a smart platform for cross-border e-commerce, the first of its kind in the region. In cooperation with its partners, the platform is one of the main projects launched by Dubai Customs during the past year within the activities of the Emirates Customs Week and aims to encourage companies and investors in the field of e-commerce to be in Dubai and benefit from its technical and logistical services and increase the share of companies in the emirate in the local and regional distribution of e-commerce to 24 One billion dirhams by the year 2022 by reducing the total cost of e-commerce operations by 20 percent, which includes the costs of return goods, storage and transportation, as e-commerce sales in the UAE are expected to grow by 23 percent, to reach 27 billion dollars (100 billion dirhams) in 2022.
Dubai Customs carried out 732 training courses during the year 2020 attended by about 4 thousand employees from various sectors in the department, with a total of 29 thousand training hours, noting that the number of training courses through digital platforms during the period of the Corona pandemic recorded 676 courses in addition to qualifying 1179 male and female students with a total of 912 training hours. Within the summer scientific and vocational program, empowering secondary education students and providing them with professional skills at early stages.
Within the framework of developing its human cadres and qualifying them to lead the future with practical life outcomes and developmental skills, the fifth batch of the program was graduated.
"Leaders" and qualifying 16 employees from all departments in the department on leadership programs. The hours of the program were distributed on 912 training hours, equivalent to 57 hours for each participating employee. This is in addition to 211 electronic training hours for all program members. During the program, the leadership laboratory was launched using virtual reality technology / Virtual Reality Leadership Lab / To keep up with the latest developments and modern methods of learning and development using the best technologies.
The department succeeded in establishing a sustainable model in the aspect of social responsibility, and the department was able to overcome obstacles during this exceptional year due to the Corona pandemic, as it strengthened its efforts in supporting and implementing community and charitable initiatives and implementing 140 community initiatives that benefited more than 63,000 beneficiaries from all segments of society.
