In his keynote address to the ninth annual Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) Customs Seminar, Commissioner of Customs Danville Walker described Customs as “open for business”.

He stated that from where he sat, the economy is starting to go in the right direction as people were importing more over the past few months.

Walker observed that Customs had to be pro business, as it was only by increasing the volume of business transactions throughout the economy that small businesses could create jobs, and “the best social programme was a job.” This also increased revenues.

The man that Lazarus Bucknor, Chairman of the JCC Customs, Tariff and Port User’s committee had nicknamed the “sheriff” stated that his primary focus was on border protection e.g finding guns and drugs but increased revenue was a welcome by product of this effort.

Walker announced that one can “no longer stay on our shores to protect Jamaica”, and he had therefore recently signed agreements with the Customs Department’s of Panama, Guatemala and Belize. This was a welcome change from the past, when Panama’s attitude had been that we are not going to help you because we want to sell more.

Walker argued, however, that he couldn’t modernise customs any further without investments in computer systems and technology, observing that if “we had invested just one per cent of revenues in the system, that would be 50 times what was invested”. He said we had managed to make the “old dilapidated Lada work, but what we need is a Lamborghini”.

He noted that when one had 50,000 transactions to look through, in cases such as temporary importation whereby goods came in one port and left another way, pen and paper could no longer cut it.

In fact, considering the challenges, “We are lucky to get what we are getting”. He noted that fiscal year to date (with half the year gone), Customs was $3 billion ahead of “where we expected to be”, of which $2 billion was from last month alone.

Further efficiency, however, required that data be entered once, but accessed by many.

He argued the key to moving forward in Customs (and for that matter Jamaica) was implementation (great ideas were plentiful) which did not mean waiting for everyone to agree, but required a willingness to fail, ask forgiveness, and try again. A good example was the E -Manifest technology, which should have been implemented long ago, and which his staff originally advised him couldn’t work. By figuratively “burning the ships” to show his people that there was no turning back, all combined with determined effort from key staff members, he was able to “move people from the status quo” to implement this crucial system.

Last December, Customs had cleared over 30,000 barrels, and Walker praised as “first world” Kingston Wharves Managing Director Grantley Stephenson’s innovation to start stripping containers at night to increase efficiency.

Stephenson, who also presented, noted that this year Kingston Wharves would be open for three Saturday’s before Christmas for personal cargo, as part of their response to the “ageless problem” of the need for efficient delivery of cargo during the peak Christmas period.

Kingston Container Terminal (KCT) Managing Director Henry Lee stated that compared with the disastrous conditions of the first half of 2009, things are definitely getting better. Transhipment is up since May, compared with last year, and in bond domestic cargo over the last four months is also above 2009, a sign that “Jamaica was getting better.” This year alone they had worked on five mega vessels, with the last ship having 10,000 lifts (the cargo equivalent of 100 US trains).

Lee noted that due to the foresight of the Port Authority, the KCT was already ready when the Panama Canal is widened in 2014. he observed that if you drew a circle around the region, going through Puerto Rico, Columbia etc, Jamaica was exactly in the middle. The major shipping lines were aware of this, and in this time of high fuel prices, Jamaica’s position at the centre of the network had the potential to make it “the logistics centre for the world”.