JCA: Positively impacting Jamaica’s national development; poised to be a global leader

THE MANAGEMENT and staff of the Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) are pleased to celebrate Customs Week 2018 under the theme: ‘A secure business environment for economic development’.

Our week of activities started on Sunday, January 21, with church services in the parishes of Kingston, St Ann, and St James, and will culminate on International Customs Day, this Friday, January 26, with the launch of our inaugural Customs Traders Forum.

FUNDAMENTAL ROLE

We recognise the fundamental role we play in the development of our country as we carry out our core mandates of protecting our borders, facilitating trade, and collecting revenue. We have a crucial role to play in ensuring that the economic wheels of Jamaica keep turning by facilitating trade through the implementation of efficient and effective procedures and processes, while equally, protecting our borders, and thus ensuring the safety of our people.

In the past year, the Agency has made significant strides in several areas including contraband detections of marijuana, cocaine, weapons, ammunition and intellectual property rights infringing goods, in tandem with our local, regional and international partners. To strengthen our detection capabilities, the Agency is taking strategic steps to leverage advanced technology related to nonintrusive inspection equipment (scanners). To complement this development, a review of the processes around the nonintrusive inspection programme will be conducted.

The major output from this review, being increased efficiency and a deeper entrenchment of a risk-based approach to the examinations, ultimately, facilitating legitimate trade while increasing the possibility of the successful interdiction of contraband.

Our trade facilitation measures continue to reflect positively, with the improved use of automation. The agency continues its thrust towards efficiency, transparency, and accountability, through increased automation and excellent service delivery, simplification of procedures, and a renewed focus on customer service.

We stand among the best customs administrations of the world, in terms of our technological, trade facilitation and border management capabilities, and hold the vision of becoming a global leader, as we continue to apply international standards and best practices throughout our operations.

COMMUNITY

As we look towards the new financial year, we will continue to seek ways to better serve our customers and stakeholders. Our community-based initiative ‘Customs Meets the Community’, which started in May 2017, has put us in direct contact with many of our stakeholders, and their comments and recommendations have impacted many of our operational changes effected. We commit to continuing this form of engagement in the garden parish of St Ann for this quarter (January-March).

The JCA is cognisant of the important role it plays in the economy. During the financial year 2018-19, the JCA will host what we hope to become an annual event, entitled ‘Customs Traders Forum’. This engagement will target the trading community, policy makers, academia, and the business leaders.

The objective of this forum is to review the trading landscape and solicit from the various sectors, their plans and vision, and to influence policy decisions which will positively affect the national growth agenda.

I take this opportunity to thank our partners, stakeholders, and customers for supporting us in the past year, and while we may not always see eye to eye, we share the same vision of seeing our country being the place of choice ‘to live, work, raise families and do business’.

Be assured that the customs team will continue to serve you diligently, guided by our core values and driven by our motto: ‘Country Above Self’.