Customs modernization and efficiency in Montevideo

(Montevideo, May 7^th, 2013). The Puerto de Montevideo Project was launched at the headquarters of the National Customs Administration (DNA, for its acronym in Spanish ) in Montevideo. With the support of CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, the program promotes the development and improvement of the control and supervision processes for merchandises that pass through the port of Montevideo on their way in or out of the national territory and to the region.

The project seeks to improve the tasks conducted by the DNA at the terminal, facilitating foreign trade operations without neglecting a proper control. A cooperation agreement with the Valencia Port Foundation will provide port experts to implement the project.

Gladis Genua, CAF's director representative in Uruguay, highlights the importance and scope of the project, stating that "it is the beginning of a process that will allow the redefinition of processes in order to generate efficiency, transparency, effectiveness, and competitiveness in the terminal, establishing the bases to achieve the goal of a Logistic Uruguay in the medium and long term".

Genua concludes that the project seeks to "diagnose the current situation of the flows of merchandise in the port of Montevideo, identify the processes of the customs operations that may be improved, and redesign them based on international best practices in similar ports, with the objective of implementing them while making them automatic in a following phase".

At the same time, the Minister of Economics, Fernando Lorenzo, supports the initiative and states that the Uruguayan economy is "open to the region and the world" highlighting that the project seeks to improve the efficiency of the Customs administration and "that efficiency will lead to a better role of the administration which, in the case of foreign trade,  has the objective of facilitating trade".

The Minister highlights "the diversity and range of the spheres in our society, represented in the act", in an event with civil, military, and national authorities, highlighting "CAF's significant role as a financial catalyst, by supporting a process of cooperation and activities that under other circumstances, could have been difficult to achieve".

Lorenzo finally adds that "the goal is to make a specific contribution to facilitate trade and, even beyond trade, facilitate the costs of these trade activities. This project aims to improve the methods and procedures that are currently used in the port and customs operations", and "real transformations occur by changing processes with  efficiency criteria and a significant concern to make users be part and receivers of the benefits.

Enrique Canon, Director of the DNA, points out the inter-institutional character of this project, stating that "we have a strategic customs-port alliance, where the goal is to use the space and time for our foreign trade, offering to the world a competitive entry and exit port for cargo and for cruises from and toward the region".

To achieve those objectives, "we have turned to a leading port regarding this matters, the Port of Valencia in the Spanish Mediterranean", which is ranked number 28 among the ports in the world, and 5^th among European ports. "The foundation of the community of Valencia for research, promotion, and trade studies of Valencia Port, Valencia Port Foundation, is a non-profit private entity" and "it is an instrument to project the port logistics community for research, education, and cooperation, with criteria of excellence ".

Finally, Canon highlights that this project must include four essential elements  for its success: management, team commitment, financing "guaranteed by CAF, which has not only distinguished us with this financing but has done so quickly and efficiently", and a public-private coalition "that shares common interests in the modernization and automation of the Port of Montevideo".

According to evidence presented in the launching of the project, the port's movements went from 400,00 containers in 2008 to 459,000 in 2012, measured in TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit), which implies a growth in customs documentation from  121,000 to 159,000 during the same period.

The closing of the event was in charge of the Director of the Valencia Port Foundation, Vicente Del Rio, who made a presentation about the Foundation, and the Director of Technology at the Miguel Llop Institution, who talked about the characteristics of the project and the ports of Montevideo and Valencia, proposing the creation of a paperless customs control as a final objective for the project.

Participation in the opening act included civil and military government authorities, foreign trade institutions, the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MTOP, for its acronym in Spanish), the Montevideo Intendant's Office , the National Naval Prefecture, the National Migration Administration, the Association of Customs Dispatchers of Uruguay, the Navigation Center, the Uruguayan Association of Cargo Agents, the International Land Transportation Chamber of Uruguay, the Inter-trade Association of Professional Land Cargo Transportation of Uruguay, the Uruguayan Chamber of Maritime Suppliers, the Union of Exporters, the Chamber of Commerce, the Mercantile Chamber of the Country's Products, the Chamber of Logistics, and the Chamber of Industries of Uruguay.