The Government of Egypt, through its Egyptian Customs Authorities, has made mandatory Advance Cargo Information (ACI) declarations with its new Egyptian Customs law #207 for all cargo inbound to Egypt starting on 1 July 2021.
The process is managed through the National Single Window for Foreign Trade platform (NAFEZA), built by Misr Technology Systems (MTS), and CargoX is authorized as the blockchain document transfer gateway service provider.
Misr Technology Services “MTS” set up the National Single Window for Foreign Trade platform NAFEZA under the mandate of the Ministry of Finance of Egypt in 2020.
MTS has now been mandated to design an ACI documentation process, and the CargoX Platform for Blockchain Document Transfer (BDT) has been authorized as the blockchain service provider for immutably registering and transferring the shipping documents with Ethereum technology.
MTS implemented a national platform that covers Egyptian airports, seaports, land ports, dry ports, and free zones in compliance with international standards and best practices.
"NAFEZA" is an integrated information platform. It was built to integrate and coordinate procedures and information exchange between all parties involved in Egypt’s foreign trade system.
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It allows the business and the trade community to submit all documents and transactions for customs, control authorities, and ports.
The data is submitted only once through an online portal to fulfill all regulatory requirements related to the release of goods.
The platform operates in accordance with the international standards of trade-related procedures and customs requirements for the clearance of goods, to convert Egypt into “One Logistical Area”. ACI filing is just one of the numerous services provided by NAFEZA.
Captain Ossama Al Sharif, CEO and Chairman of MTS said, “Egypt is proud of its maritime heritage, and we see technological advancements as a driving force of global trade and shipping security, and digitalization and data visibility are essential for better efficiency and transparency.
These two leading technological companies working hand in hand will offer a revolutionary solution for the whole region.”
Mr. Stefan Kukman, CEO of CargoX said, “We are proud to have been chosen by MTS as a strategic partner to provide the key neutral blockchain technology for improving security in the global trade lanes that run through Egypt,” and added, “we believe this is the beginning of a great partnership.”
Mr. Gamal Kotb, General Manager of Misr Technology Systems said, “We have built the single window system (Nafeza) for trade facilitation in record time, relying on technology and service providers such as CargoX.”
Mr. Vjeran Ortynski, Chief Business Development Officer at CargoX said, “Governments and companies with a strong digitalization agenda are showing the way for all the rest to follow while gaining a strategic advantage."
“The Advance Cargo Information functionality builds on the immutability and tamper-proof concept of our public blockchain technology while providing real-time transparency and auditability where it naturally fits - in moving goods between countries or continents”.
Using the CargoX Platform for ACI allows customs authorities to stop relying on declarations from importers. Instead, each document can be easily traced back to its origin, directly to the issuer, thanks to the CargoX technology based on the public blockchain.
ACI filing price shall be set at $50 with a grace period until the end of April 2021, and the fee applying as of May 1st, 2021.
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