Thai customs aims to be completely electronic by May 1st

Via The Nation:

The Customs Department will stop providing services under its Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system, which has been in use for the past 10 years. E-customs will replace the EDI system in Thailand’s three major ports - Laem Chabang, Klong Toei and Suvarnabhumi Airport - as well as other points of entry and exit.

Effectively, e-customs will contribute to re-engineering each system in Thailand’s Customs Department, making it fully electronic, bringing improvements in operation management and reducing many sophisticated processes.

Unlike the original EDI system, e-customs is an electronic customs-clearance service that eliminates the use of documents like import/export entry and commercial invoices, which previously had to be physically submitted to customs-port officers. The import/export declaration process will be replaced by an e-declaration system.

Other sub-systems include e-manifest, for shipping lines to enter manifests electronically; e-payment, to support the payment process; and e-container, to control the movement of containers. As well, what is called “public key infrastructure” technology is being used to replace the need to sign pieces of paper, and other changes in operations have been introduced to reduce the number of steps that customs procedures normally take.

It should be noted that this project, like their new airport, had been previously delayed. Hopefully they have learned from past customs system disasters such as Australia. Then again, the much-delayed opening of their highly publicized new airport was a complete mess. See here, here, and here.