Customs to Introduce innovations in its operations.

This year’s International Customs  Day was celebrated yesterday with a call on the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to introduce innovations in customs processes and procedures to enhance revenue collection and facilitate trade.
The Commissioner General of the GRA, Mr George Blankson, who made the call at the event  in Accra, said as part of efforts to increase revenue generation and facilitate trade, it was important for the Customs Division to ease border congestion, ensure smooth movement of both human and vehicular traffic and protect citizens from dangerous and harmful products.
In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Blankson said such innovations should be underpinned by a high sense of unity of purpose and constant dialogue to resolve any impediments to international trade.
 The International Customs Day is celebrated on January 26 every year by the customs fraternity. The theme for this year’s celebration is: “Innovation for customs progress”.
The day also gives customs an opportunity to honour its dedicated  and hardworking officers, as well as other stakeholders who together occupy unique and important positions in the facilitation of trade and movement of people.
The Commissioner General indicated that the impressive record of performance of the GRA, Customs Division was  well acknowledged.
That, he said, explained why Ghana had been selected to host the 18th World Customs Organisation Regional Conference of Director Generals in Central and West Africa region in March, this year.
For his part, the Commissioner, Customs Division of the GRA, Major General Carl Modey, said for two years running, the performance of customs had been excellent.
He said the division was embarking on an image cleansing exercise to weed out all miscreants, adding that the division was committed to honest and genuine business.
In a message, the Secretary General of World Customs Organisation, Mr  Kunio Mikuriya, said innovation was a key driver for sustainable customs reforms and modernisation.
He said  innovation was not just about designing and implementing something new but it was also about continuing investment in all aspects of customs work, including its human capital.
Mr Mikuriya said innovation itself could be spurred on by many things, including evidence-based research, thought-provoking dialogue, knowledge sharing, solution-driven development, modern management practices, the use of new technologies, dynamic partnerships among all stakeholders, excellent customer relations, and the desire to do better through creative thinking.
The  Marketing and Corporate Affairs Manager of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) in Tema, Mr Kumi Adjei-Sam, in a solidarity message said GPHA and the Customs Division of the GRA had held several meetings to ensure that key challenges that confronted their clients were addressed.
He said one of the key outcomes of those interactions was the connection of all state institutions involved in permit issuances for clearance of items through the port to the GCNET platform.