The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC) and the General Administration of Customs Friday announced their intention to examine and verify import and export permits across the country electronically.

From today, all of the country's customs will be able to make use of an electronic database of import and export permits set up by MOFTEC when examining and verifying passing goods, according to a press release from the ministry Friday.

Customs offices will be able to cancel the import and export permits after verification and record this information on the network.

The ministry has a total of 62 import and export permit issuing offices across the country. The database for the permits has been established via an Intranet, according to the press release.

The ministry and the General Administration of Customs signed an agreement in 1998 to link up their networks for online examination and verification of import and export permits.

They picked three customs offices in Dalian in Liaoning Province, Gongbei in Guangdong Province and Chengdu in Sichuan Province in which to try out the system from September 1 last year.

The trial was then spread to 10 other customs offices on April 1 this year. These included Tianjin, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Qingdao, Huangpu, Shenzhen, Shantou, Zhanjiang and Jiangmen.

The tests showed that the network improved the efficiency of customs and that it stopped forged permits, according to the release.

"The practice immediately won high praise from permit issuers, the customs offices involved and importers and exporters," it said.

A ministry official said that the new system will help improve the openness and transparency of China's management of import and export permits. "It is in line with the World Trade Organization's call for reforming China's management of import and export permits," he said.

MOFTEC and the General Administration of Customs hope ultimately to get rid of paper permits. They have entrusted an e-business company to develop a new powerful software system to this end, said the press release. It said the system will soon be in operation, although no timetable was given.

(China Daily 09/30/2000)