Anti-Corruption Measures
The geographical location of Ukraine makes an international trade an important priority in the development of our country's economy. The streamlining of economic activity is possible due to the simplification of trade procedures. This means that most of the trade facilitation efforts concern customs procedures. One of the obstacles to...
The geographical location of Ukraine makes an international trade an important priority in the development of our country's economy. The streamlining of economic activity is possible due to the simplification of trade procedures. This means that most of the trade facilitation efforts concern customs procedures. One of the obstacles to international trade is the processing of goods crossing the Ukrainian border. Dealing with transport and logistics in its daily activities PLASKE JSC realizes that changes in this sector are extremely necessary.
Following the UNECE Recommendations No 33, 34 and 35 PLASKE JSC jointly with Odessa Commercial Sea Port initiated a project for the introduction of the Single Window - Local Solution technology in the Southern Customs and the ports of the Odessa Region in 2012. The project was aimed at preventing corruption and promoting deregulation, limiting bureaucratic procedures, ensuring the security of the supply chain, standardizing and digitalizing international trade procedures in the context of Ukraine's integration into European and world markets.
The project envisaged the creation of a unified information system of the port community in the ports of the Odessa region. This Port Community System (ISPS) accumulates, verifies, processes, stores, exchanges and transmits electronically information and documents for border, customs and other control authorities. It allows registration of persons, vehicles, goods, including cargo and luggage. This system complies with the legislation on electronic documents and takes into account the Single Window concept in international practice and the recommendations of international organizations in the use of electronic records and digital signatures.
"PLASKE" JSC established a data processing center for the port community system in Ukraine. LLC PPL 33-35 was engaged in the development of a special software product for the implementation of the tasks set by the government. The key tasks of this company are:
- support for the developed software product;
- protection of electronic commercial information;
- development and improvement of information exchange between the authorized governmental and non-governmental organizations.
The software product speeds up the interaction between a large number of organizations and companies, preventing the corruption practices. Moreover, it provides non-contact, paperless handling of containers with foreign trade cargoes.
The Port Community System is based on:
- openness;
- transparency;
- access-friendly;
- consistency;
- automation.
An Interagency Working Group was established to coordinate and monitor the progress and to determine the direction of its implementation. It consists of the representatives of government authorities, law enforcement agencies, business associations and organizations, traders and transporters. In 2014 taking into account the Ukraine's obligations undertaken in December 2013 after the signing of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and to facilitate the proper implementation of the "Reform Strategy-2020", a decision was made to transform the Interagency Working Group on Implementation of Single Window - Local Solution Project into the Interagency Working Group on International Trade and Logistics Facilitation in Ukraine.
The renewed Interagency Working Group’s TOR include:
- development and implementation of the National Strategy for the International Trade and Logistics Facilitation,
- creating the basis for the establishment of the National Committee on Trade Facilitation pursuant to the UN recommendations.
The decisions taken at the three meetings of the IWG in 2016-2017 were respected in the orders of the Government of Ukraine, which assign specific executors and responsible persons at the level of the central executive authorities.
This local solution is created as a pilot project - the basis on which it is possible to build more extensive national projects. Due to this initiatives, the government and society take part in the implementation of the set tasks for the creation of favorable transit conditions and the development of the transport and logistics system of Ukraine for integration into the European system.
Due to the successful implementation of the 10th principle of the UN Global Compact for the implementation of the "Single Window - Local Solution" project in 2016, PLASKE JSC took the opportunity to disseminate its experience and took part in the national project "Bestin in CSR", presenting the business case "Practical experience on counteracting corruption in Ukraine ", which was successfully evaluated in the field of socially responsible corporate governance and reporting.
PLASKE JSC with the support of the Interagency Working Group conducts free seminars on the UNECE Guidelines for employees of ministries and departments of Ukraine, as well as for business community. Such events allow those involved in the supply chain to gain knowledge on ISPS operating in Ukraine.
In 2016 the Sixth International Seminar on Trade Facilitation and the Single Window "Trade Facilitation and Trade and Transport Corridors Development in Ukraine" was held in the framework of the annual International Transport Week in Odessa. The 13 speakers, leading experts in this area, presented the key topics of the seminar: the impact of the further implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and other international conventions and agreements on the development of transport corridors in Ukraine; the prospects for using the ISPS Port Community System (Single Window) implemented in the Odessa port as a hub for international trade and transport corridors in the country.
Activities of the Interagency Working Group and the relevant presentations of the speakers are located at singlewindow.org, open for the stakeholders. Here you can find regulatory documents on the project, minutes of meetings with the results of the project implementation, newsletters and data on the statistics of the use of ISPS by freight forwarding companies in the ports of Ukraine.
The immediate plans of the ISPS development include its expansion to other seaports and ferry transport, enhancing information protection within the ISPS system and its integration into the information systems of state agencies.
At the request of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority complete transition to electronic registration of ships at all ports of Ukraine would be the next step in the ISPS development. As Ukraine is considering the development of its transit potential within the New Silk Road (in November 2016, Ukraine signed the Agreement on cooperation and the development of eSilkRoad electronic platform, the Memorandum on strategic cooperation between the Ukrainian House in Beijing and the International Chamber of Commerce of the Silk Road, the Cooperation Agreement between the center of modern China "Tianxiang Link" and the International Chamber of Commerce of the Silk Road) we can say that the ISPS as trade facilitator acquires new potential and value.
The government considers the Single window - Local Solution project as an extremely important measure to fight and eliminate corruption practices, which entails additional revenues to the state budget and positioning of Ukraine as an attractive axis for the fast transit, and as a basis for further rapid data processing systems based on Single window concept in other areas of public relations in Ukraine.
The implementation of this project demonstrated our Stakeholders that the private sector's efforts can improve the economic results that affect the whole society. This initiative of the public-private partnership to streamline economic activity undoubtedly strengthens Ukraine's position in international trade despite the difficult period for our state.
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