Government Targets Trade Bottlenecks with Digital Solution

For importers and exporters, moving goods across Belize’s borders can mean piles of paperwork, added costs and frustrating delays. Now, the government is moving to bring that process online through an Electronic Single Window for Trade, a digital platform designed to place key trade services in one location and make doing business faster and easier. Earlier this year, officials began developing the system in response to longstanding complaints about the country’s complex, paper-based procedures. Today, Minister of State for Foreign Trade Marconi Leal Junior met with the Uruguay-based technology firm developing the platform. Following that meeting, Leal explained how the system is expected to transform trade administration in Belize.

 

Marconi Leal, Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Trade

“The electronic single window is an opportunity for us to simplify the process for our importers as well as export. It is the start of a very important project where we will get to simplify the process. I think a lot of people know, and importers will tell you that they have been challenged with having to send documents to BAHA and different agencies to get what they need. What the electronic single window will do is to cut down that process. Everybody gets access to a document you upload, the permissions, the approvals, and how it goes through that flow is going to be much easier because we are digitizing it. So what we have here is an extensive consultation was done and the process to get the vendors. The vendors are now in country. We are hitting the ground and we have a solid trade team that they are there and ensuring we liaise with the different agencies and a lot needs to go in place. So we have the support of CITO and E-Governance and all the different agencies that ensures the electronic single window flows into what we want it to be.”

 

The first phase of implementation will integrate five key regulatory agencies, including the Customs and Excise Department, the Chief Pharmacist Office, the Supplies Control Unit, the Belize Agricultural Health Authority, and the Belize Fisheries Department.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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