Dubai Customs stages 4 new smart initiatives to compete for Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart Government Award

Dubai Customs (DC) is in the run for the 4th cycle of Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart Government Award, organized by Dubai’ The Model Centre, a subsidiary of the General Secretariat of the Executive Council.

DC’s submissions for this year’s round of the highly coveted awards include four cutting-edge, smart initiatives, namely: Smart Workspace, Self-Service for Issuing Vehicle Certificates, Advanced Passenger Luggage Clearance, and Gate Pass for Goods in the Local Market.

With these new innovation-oriented introductions, Dubai Customs is raising the bar of public services offered by the government of Dubai and is further leveraging the emirate’s steadfast transformation to become the world’s smartest city.

"Dubai Customs has adopted a robust strategy to meet the objectives of Smart Dubai Plan, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai,” said Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director of Dubai Customs.

 “At Dubai Customs we take great care to employing world best practices as defined by the Dubai Model for Government Services when developing new services or upgrading existing facilities, processes and systems.”

Musabih pointed out that the four pioneering Customs initiatives that participate in this year’s cycle of Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart Government Award are designed to rise to the growth challenges of a future Dubai, particularly in trade supply chain and travel sector.

“Dubai Customs is always keen on improving Customs services and processes to sustainably save customers time, effort and cost while enhancing confidence in public services. The ultimate objective is to realize the aspirations set by  H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, for  all government services to go beyond customers’ expectations,” he added.

The Director of Dubai Customs said the newly-introduced initiatives submitted for the award will help make a quantum leap in the services Dubai Customs delivers to its stakeholders today.

The Smart Workspace initiative from Dubai Customs transforms traditional online/mobile services into smart services, utilizing wearable and portable devices through re-engineering the way users interact with the applications for trade supply chain. It has reduced transaction processing time by 45% & cut down customer costs by 79%, thus offering a unique experience for customers.

The Self-Service for Issuing Vehicle Certificates initiative offers a self-service kiosk for DC clients to process new Vehicles Clearance Certificates (VCC) without the hassle of waiting to complete the service. The new breakthrough has reduced customer waiting time by 98%  and cost  by 86%,  as well as enhanced customer-facing staff productivity and increased clients satisfaction.

On the other hand, the Advanced Passenger Luggage Clearance initiative from Dubai Customs has been launched at passenger terminals to improve customs clearance procedures by reducing time and cost, using smart devices/systems to check and stop suspicious baggage before arrival to terminal exit. It reduced processing time by 93%  and helped Dubai remain a major airline hub.

The forth initiative, the Gate Pass for Goods in the Local Market, is an initiative launched jointly by Dubai Customs and Dubai Logistics City to improve customs clearance service by smartly reducing time and cost and using smart systems to facilitate goods movement between local market and Dubai Logistics City. This initiative has helped reduce the time needed to move goods by 91% with almost zero-waiting time.

“Hamdan Bin Mohammed Programme for Smart Government is a strong incentive for all government departments and entities to go the extra mile and bring their best of services to the public,” said Hussam Juma Mohammed, Business Process and Enterprise Architecture Director and Head of Innovation Team at Dubai Customs.

“Dubai Customs will be a strong contender for the program awards this year, with multiple submissions in different categories,” said Hussam Juma, noting that the award offers a prime competitive platform for government agencies to take public services to new heights.