THE Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has committed to support the Bureau of Customs’ (BoC) modernization efforts through technical assistance.
“The BoC positively anticipates that the newly designated JICA Customs expert will provide needed timely and strategic technical assistance and capacity-building support to further improve customs processes and good governance,” The BoC said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Through proactive sharing of best practices, JICA can effectively guide the BoC in its pursuit of becoming a credible and modernized customs service.
It said it is looking forward to the re-establishment of a Customs laboratory.
The Customs laboratory aims to help resolve instances of technical smuggling, by providing chemical analyses of shipments seeking to evade tariff classification by being declared as something other than the taxable item.
The National Economic and Development Authority recently blamed the delay in Customs modernization on procurement issues. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson