Alveena Ahmad
Pakistan has become the 18th member of the Pan-Asian E-Commerce Alliance (PAA).
The Pan-Asian E-Commerce Alliance (PAA), a global organization of customs and trade service providers, has granted Pakistan Single Window (PSW), a national institution, the status of Associate Member. The PAA’s goal is to promote and provide secure, dependable, and value-added IT infrastructure and facilities for effective international trade and logistics services.
As an alliance member, PSW will have the chance to take part in a number of PAA-led initiatives for developing a safe and efficient network for exchanging trade regulatory documents. This network will allow traders, logistics companies, and governmental organizations to transmit and verify trading documents via a cross-border blockchain platform, lowering transaction costs and increasing trade efficiency.
The CEO of PSW, Syed Aftab Haider, stated in a statement announcing the membership, “We are enthusiastic about the global visibility to be gained from this affiliation and the possibility to engage in international B2B and B2G data exchange projects. The membership supports our goal of developing PSW into an international and national center of excellence and enables us to absorb best practices from around the world.”
Pakistani SMEs and MSMEs stand to gain the most from such relationships on a global scale. Processes that are more uniform, transparent, and predictable facilitate access to the $6.3 trillion global e-commerce market, which is predicted to grow this year. In order to help Pakistani firms benefit from international trade, PSW’s operations are still driven by the elimination of clearance bottlenecks and an increase in safety and security.
At TradeWindow, the top provider of customs and trade services in New Zealand, which hosted PAA’s 67th Steering Committee meeting in Auckland, the membership was revealed. Pakistan Single Window joins a network of 17 single window companies from Asia, Oceania, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa as a member of the PAA. The forum frequently takes part in regional and global consultative meetings held by organizations like ASEAN, UNCEFACT, and the World Customs Organisation.
Pakistan Single Window is a Pakistan Customs program that aims to speed up and lower the cost of doing business by digitizing cross-border trade in Pakistan and doing rid of paper-based manual operations.
The organization is working to provide an integrated electronic platform that will enable parties engaged in international trade and transportation to submit standardized data and paperwork through a single entry point in order to satisfy all regulatory requirements for import, export, and transit.
