HE Ahmed Butti Ahmed, the Director General of Dubai Customs and CEO of the Ports, Maritime and Free Zone Authority, received at his office HE Clarence Yu, Singaporean Commissioner at Immigration and Border Authority, Chua Tuanming, Director of Operation Planning at Immigration and Border Authority, and HE Dileep Nair, Consul General of Singapore in Dubai, and Mrs. Sharifa Al Junaid, Malaysian Consul.
The two parties discussed means of cooperation between customs of both sides and the exchange of expertise. The meeting was attended by Mr. Abbas Makki, Director of International Relations at Dubai Customs.
In the meeting, Director General stressed the necessity to work together in all fields that can boost economic co-operation and rise trade exchange between Dubai and Singapore which witnessed a growth of 22% during the first nine months of 2010. It reached 4.6 billion dirhams compared to 3.7 billion dirhams in the same period last year.
HE said that global co-operation between Customs departments has become a necessity these days. It helps in developing Customs systems and helps in exchanging ideas and information, especially the ones that are related to techniques used to smugglers.
For his part, HE Chua Tuanmin, said that challenges that customs departments face all around the world are very similar which makes it more necessary for these departments to foster co-operation between them. He said: “We, at Immigration and Border Authority, are ready and more than willing to discuss co-operation means with Dubai Customs”.
During the visit, a presentation about the new customs clearing system “Mersal 2” which Dubai Customs launched last year was introduced along with a detailed review of Dubai’s vision and Mission and the practical measures that it uses to maintain its international leading status.
According to Dubai Customs statistics, Dubai imports from Singapore grew during the first nine months of 2010 by 17.5% which makes dhs 3.2 billion, compared to dhs 2.7 billion for the same period last year. Meanwhile, Dubai exports to Singapore during the same period reached dhs 364 million, an increase by 49% compared to the same period last year which reached dhs 244 million. Re-exporting from Dubai to Singapore generated more than a billion dirhams for the same period this year compared to dhs 818 million for the same period last year which means an increase by 27%.