Public Sector Tech Project of the Year
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Specifically, the system enables importers, exporters and forwarding agents to apply for permits from permit issuing agencies and obtain approval via the Internet. Approved permits from the agencies will be transmitted electronically for validation and cross-reference purposes against customs regulations. The ePermit system has won accolades as the Public Sector Project of the Year in the ZDNet Asia Smart50 Awards.
As of March this year, three Malaysian government agencies are now connected to the ePermit portal. They are the Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (FMAA), the Pesticide Board and the Malaysian Cocoa Board.
With the previous manual and semi-computerized systems, there were difficulties in managing approval records because there was no uniformity in how the records were kept. The import and export approval process was also lengthy, averaging from 2 to 7 days per permit, and required applicants to make several trips to the agencies.
With the Royal Malaysian Customs mandating that all 23 permit-issuing agencies in Malaysia must be linked to ePermit by September 2006, Dagang Net estimates the system will electronically transfer an average of 250,000 permit applications per month, benefiting 5,000 importers and exporters in the country.
Dagang Net's objectives were clear: the entire permit registration process was to be reengineered to bring efficiency, effectiveness and productivity to all connected parties.
The results manifested quickly. Processing time of import and export permit applications was reduced from up to a week under the manual system previously, to just one day using ePermit.
So thanks to a speedier process, those in the agricultural industry, for example, can penetrate the export market faster, as well as reduce costs and raise the efficiency of their trading activities.
Of course, in any technology project, convincing people to change the way they do things is always the toughest job. Dagang Net saw difficulties in changing the mindsets of people involved in the trade value chain. Moreover, the vision of one window integrating all parties connected to the trade value chain was difficult to grasp, even on a global level.
To overcome the hurdles, Dagang Net emphasized to employees of the permit issuing agencies the benefits such as time and cost savings, as well as efficiency and effectiveness.