Against a background of
growing trade prospects
with southern Africa,
South Africa has
recognised that facilitating crossborder
trade is key.
“Zimbabwe is
no exception,”
says Core Freight
Systems’ Jonathan
Sims. “Given its
common border
with South Africa
this presents
opportunities
for enhancing
the efficiency of
cross-border trade
– both in terms of
streamlining the
physical movement
of goods and the
data required to process
the movement.”
Computer
applications
are expected to
provide much
more than the
mechanism to
frame an entry
for submission
of declarations
to the revenue
authorities,
says Sims. “They
rather provide
a system for
overall control and
management of the
business – and this is
essential for success
in an increasingly
competitive
logistics
environment, not only for the
individual operators but the overall
economies, both nationally and as a
region.”
With several clients operating the
CoreFreight application in African
countries, the basic requirements
do not vary from nation to nation,
irrespective of
the individual
independent customs
authorities, says Sims.
“We have the
ASYCUDA output
available for
SA-Zimbabwe trade
clearances but believe
that this is only one
aspect of the potential
to be realised
through the use of
modern computer
technology. It delivers
the ability not only to
interface with other
systems as required
but also contributes
to internal efficiency
gains.”
And he believes
the primary
challenge in
Zimbabwe is no
different from
South Africa
– “providing
the appropriate
expertise and
support structure to
optimise the operation
of the application by
the users.”
INSERT & CAPTION
Streamlining the
physical movement of
goods and the data
required to process
the movement.
– Jonathan Sims
