Customs Week to Focus on Building Partnerships with the Business Sector

Jamaica Customs Week, which will be observed from January 23 to 29, will focus attention on the continued thrust by the Jamaica Customs Department to develop partnerships with the business sector.
“We always have to find ways to improve our procedures and processes at Customs so that bureaucracy is reduced, Jamaica becomes a more competitive place as a destination for business, and we are able to compete on a better playing field within our region and also with our major trading partners,” said Commissioner of Customs, Danville Walker.
“As we celebrate Customs Week, we are seeking to develop partnerships with business to be able to improve our performance and the performances of businesses that depend on importation,” he added.
He was addressing a JIS Think Tank on Wednesday (January 20) at the agency’s Half-Way Tree Road headquarters in Kingston.
According to the Commissioner, the week, which will be observed under the theme: ‘Customs and Business: Improving Performance Through Partnership’, will also bring to the attention of the general public, some of the facilities that exist within the Jamaica Customs Department.
Activities will include a church service at the St. Andrew Seventh-day Adventist Church; supplements in the Gleaner and Observer newspapers; a Customs Appreciation Day on Tuesday, January 26, which is International Customs Day; and stakeholders’ symposia in Kingston and St. James on Wednesday, January 27 and Thursday, January 28, respectively.
The seminars, Mr. Walker informed, will provide an excellent opportunity for the Customs Department to engage its major stakeholders in dialogue on improvements that have been made since last year, programmes completed in the action plan, and plans for the future.
The main address will be delivered by Commissioner Walker with presentations by customs brokers, representatives of the Freight Forwarders Association of Jamaica, Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, Jamaica Trade and Invest, and the University of the West Indies.