Following the leading role of the United Arab Emirates in serving humanity and providing aid and assistance to the world’s population, the Dubai Customs’ Logistics City Centre provides its continuous support to facilitate processes and operations of companies and traders, and in particular in the shipments of the International Humanitarian City.

These efforts have a great impact on the arrival of humanitarian aid and supplies in record time to countries in need due to global crises, in addition to accelerating the completion of procedures for e-commerce companies, which witnessed a significant increase in demand during the past years.

“Dubai Logistics City Customs Centre completed 48,000 transactions and cleared goods valued at Dhs1.6 billion in the 1st quarter of this year,” said Sami Eisa, Senior Manager of Dubai Logistics City Customs Centre. “The centre supports international companies, including humanitarian missions, by accelerating procedures and providing all necessary support, especially for shipments from the International Humanitarian City, which is the largest humanitarian logistics centre in the world.”

“We support the mission of Dubai Logistics City in attracting international firms and investments by introducing sophisticated and smart customs inspection services. This reflects the emirate’s competency and efficiency in providing the best logistics and customs services. Our Centre’s initiatives target the wellness and happiness of our employees to help develop their performance. The electronic lead procedure is an example of this, which helped with a faster clearance of shipments. At the same time, Dubai Customs engages clients in different initiatives organised by the Centre to know their needs and serve them better.”

Dubai Customs received recently a senior Kuwaiti delegation, headed by Abdulkarim Taqi, Director-General, Public Authority for Industry (PAI).

Mansoor Al-Malik, Executive-Director for Policies and Legislation Division at Dubai Customs received the Kuwaiti delegation. The meeting was attended by a number of officials from Dubai Customs and Kuwaiti businessmen and traders.

Al-Malik briefed the delegation on the latest developments and new projects at Dubai Customs and their role in facilitating global trade and investment. He also touched on the role played by the Policy and Legislation Division at Dubai Customs in setting policies related to value, customs tariff and origin, and the protection of intellectual property rights in accordance with local and international requirements.

“The Kuwaiti delegation’s visit reflects the two parties’ desire to boost cooperation in trade and economic sectors, exchange experiences, discuss available opportunities, encourage investments and increase trade exchanges between Dubai and Kuwait,” he said.

For his part, Abdulkarim Taqi said that the visit is part of the Kuwaiti participation in Expo 2020 Dubai through the Kuwaiti Industry Week.

Separately, Dubai Customs revealed in the start of April that the emirate’s external foodstuff trade in 2021 grew 11 per cent to reach Dhs57 billion, compared to Dhs51.4 billion in 2020.

According to the latest figures released by Dubai Customs, exports grew 11.3 per cent to Dhs10.8 billion from Dhs9.7 billion in 2020, while re-exports went up by 10 per cent to Dhs7.9 billion from Dhs7.2 billion, and imports rose 11 per cent to Dhs38.2 billion from Dhs34.4 billion. In terms of volume, Dubai traded 14.1 million tonnes of foodstuff in 2021, which included 9.9 million tonnes of imports, 3 million tonnes of exports, and 1.1 million tonnes of re-exports. Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director-General of Dubai Customs and CEO of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, said “The Holy Month of Ramadan is just around the corner, and at this time every year, there is a marked growth in foodstuff trade compared to other months.

During this period, Dubai Customs works at full capacity to facilitate increased trade and ensure smooth access to foodstuffs in the local market.” “There is particularly increased demand this month due to the reopening of Ramadan tents, which were closed in 2020 due to the pandemic.”

“Food trade is one of the major sectors benefiting from smart customs services and procedures provided by the Government Department, due to its nature and the need to ensure rapid clearance while ensuring the highest safety.” “Dubai Customs works constantly to develop its procedures and services in order to meet the evolving needs of the trading community.” “Our advanced systems completed 21.3 million customs declarations in 2021, growing 54.3 per cent from 13.8 million declarations in 2020, which means we processed an average of 58,300 declarations every day last year,” he added.

The Director-General highlighted the crucial role the quarterly Dubai Customs Consultative Council (DCCC) meetings play in connecting better with the business groups in the emirate.