Georgia’s outdated trading procedures are set to be upgraded to an electronic system that will save money, reduce paper waste and help promote Georgia as a regional hub for trade.
The modernized electronic system will be a first for the region and will also help strengthen the links between international trade industry insiders including traders, customs brokers, freight forwarders and shipping lines.
Authorities announced a trade facilitation system (TFS) will be launched in Georgia soon. The TFS is a single point of entry that will enable international traders to electronically exchanging shipping and transaction data to stakeholders in a standardized format online.
The project will be implemented by the Data Exchange Agency, which is a Governmental body that worked on promoting information security and e-governance development, and the Economic Prosperity Initiative (EPI), which is a four-year $40 million program designed to improve enterprise, industry and country-level competitiveness in Georgia.
The Data Exchange Agency chairman Irakli Gvenetadze said Georgia would be the first country in the region to implement the new trade system.
The Government has invested 4 million GEL into the project, which is expected to launch in April this year.
"The system is a phased process designed according to international best practice. This streamlines business processes, improves efficiencies and reduces the opportunity for error,” Gvenetadze said.
Currently, stakeholders in the transport and logistics sector communicate directly with each other in paper-based forms and using different formats. Errors and duplicate paperwork reduced efficiency and raised costs, he said.
Gvenetadze believed the TFS enabled electronic connections between customs, railway, sea ports, shipping lines, terminals, warehouses, expeditors, freight forwarders, brokers, banks, insurance companies.
More than 300 expeditor and shipping companies, 11 shipping lines, two ports including Poti and Batumi on the Black Sea and railway are operating in Georgia.
The people behind the project believed businesses would be the first to implement the project.
"We have already started negotiations with [industry insiders] to use the service and they are eager to engage in the project as it streamlines business processes, improves efficiency and reduces the opportunity for error,” said the EPI Customs and Trade Facilitation Manager.
Parties must pay for using the new service and Gvenetadze said the Agency had been working on setting a price.
"The tariff of the service will be very reasonable as the project optimizes logistics processes and reduces management as well as administration expenses,” he said.
A survey conducted in Poti Port, revealed TFS would replace more than a million pages of paper documents and save more than 4.5 million GEL each year in the management of containerized cargo.