Dubai Customs honors its clients and stakeholders

Dubai Customs organized in Zabeel Saray Hotel on Tuesday 15 March 2011 the annual gathering for its stakeholders and clients as part of cooperation with them and celebration of the shared achievements.

With the attendance of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman, Dubai Airports, President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, HE Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Executive Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, Director General of Dubai Customs inaugurated the event. A number of senior officials from ministries, government departments, federal authorities and public and private companies, as well as a number of major clients attended the event. 

In his opening speech, HE said that the department has established a special unit that aims at enhancing the department’s partnerships with different entities following the vision of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai which focuses on excellence, innovation, quality, and helping Dubai move forward to become one of the leading cities in the world.

“As for clients, Dubai Customs understands always the importance of communication with them continuously in order to meet their needs and develop relations with them. For that reason, we established Dubai Customs’ Consultative Council which aims, in the first place, to listen to clients’ remarks and try to solve any setbacks that may occur in their dealing with the department. We also adopted a “secret shopper” plan to know what the client is actually facing while dealing with the department” he added.

For his part, Mr. Ahmed Mahboob Musabah, Executive Director of Clients Management Division said that Last year was laden with achievements that serve our work and reflect our enthusiasm in raising client and stakeholder satisfaction. In terms of customer service, we launched the electronic clearance system “Mirsal 2”which is considered as a quantum leap in the history of customs work due to its immense potentials and advanced technologies. It enables clients to finalize their different transactions online on a 24/7 basis, and helps in minimizing costs and optimizing revenues, and reducing time needed to do different transactions that doesn’t involve risk to less than two minutes.

“In order to encourage major clients to do their work online through “Mirsal 2”, we launched a B2g channel to enable these companies finalize their work and pay the fees online. We also launched an integrated inspection system in which we inspect moving trailers using scanning techniques without a need to stop them or inspect them manually. One machine in this new system can inspect 150 vehicles per hour “he added.

“The department has recently completed rebuilding the coastal berth at Rashid Port to be ready for any expected increase in traffic in the creek in the near future. We also added an additional gate in Jebel Ali Port to meet the expected increasing demand of the port’s services” he explained

A documentary on Dubai Customs’ achievements and activities during 2010 was displayed followed by a show performed by one of the department’s inspectors that reflected the huge efforts of the department in preventing passage and circulation of fraud products.

At the end of the event, HE Ahmed Butti Ahmed, along with a number of Dubai Customs’ executive directors honored some of the most prominent clients who played a notable role in facilitating customs work.

Jiby John George, Supply Chain Manager - Retail, AlFuttaim Group said that Dubai Customs has played a vital role in the Supply Chain Operations of the Alfuttaim Retail Division and that the event is a chance to cement the rapport and relationship between Alfuttaim Retail and Dubai Customs.

"This Success of our Relationship is only possible because of the True Partnership approach that Alfuttaim Retail and Dubai Customs enjoy and also in  the coming years we would like to broaden the cohesive approach  to help Alfuttaim Retail / Dubai Customs partnership in the Region  reach a level everyone wants to benchmark with" he added.