Dubai: More than 73 million passengers were handled by Dubai Customs through air, land and sea ports in 2015, according to figures released by Dubai Customs on Sunday.
Ahmad Mahboob Musabih, Director of Dubai Customs said with this large amount of passengers passing through the ports, ensuring they receive access to top services and facilities is of utmost priority to Dubai Customs, who is constantly looking at improving and adopting the best practices and experiences in administration and logistics.
“Passengers coming to the country through Dubai airports get special attention from Dubai Customs. We make sure they receive a warm welcome and only top-drawer services and facilities that offer passengers an unrivalled airport experience, that befits the UAE’s worldwide reputation as a welcoming, visitor-friendly and hospitable country,” he said.
Musabih was speaking at the launch of the first Dubai Customs Week, which is being held under the title ‘Dubai Customs.. A World of Digital Innovations’ and is in parallel with the International Customs Day on January 26.
During the week-long event targeting all their stakeholders, Musabih said there will be 30 activities taking place to raise awareness about what they do to achieve economic and social development, in addition to workshops and lectures held with the private sector to exchange ideas and expertise, “in order to help enhance operational efficiency and corporate performance.”
The programme of events will also include various awareness sessions for their customers and the public across different locations including school students and the youth.
Topics on Intellectual Property Rights and the adverse effects of drugs and misuse of restricted medications will also be discussed as part of their awareness activities.
Smart services
“The goal of staging Dubai Customs Week is to cater to the boom seen in Dubai in all spheres -- and to live up to the reputation of the emirate’s government services and smart projects that seek keeping people happy. We hope for high client satisfaction rates, that will transcend the 91.2 per cent scored in 2014,” he said.
Sultan Bin Sulayem, Chairman of DP World and Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC), said PCFC entities collectively handled around 18 million transactions a year -- and without utilising electronic systems that wouldn’t have been possible.
“Everything Dubai Government does has to do with innovation. Innovation came out of necessity, we don’t innovate to say we did, we innovate because it came out of necessity. Dubai Customs has more innovations than any other department. The processes that we follow isn’t just processing the document but also inspecting making sure that nothing goes wrong, which is a big part of our procedures,” he said.
He urged clients to participate in giving their inputs and ideas to further develop Dubai Customs services and help make transactions faster.
