On April 4, the Customs Service of the Republic of Moldova started an information campaign dedicated to the entrepreneurial environment. The campaign aims at evoking the electronic facilities provided by the e-Customs service, launched in 2013 and encouraging, at the same time, business people to make use of the electronic customs procedure for export purposes.  

e-Customs [6], the electronic customs clearance service, marks the beginning of a customs procedures’ modernization and digitization phase in the field of foreign trade. Thus, all the economic agents holding digital signatures may fill in the export declaration in electronic format, avoiding several time-consuming and resource-wasting actions, such as running the vehicle loaded with goods at the customs headquarters, stationing in the customs control area, affixing seals or contracting brokerage services. 

Since the electronic customs clearance procedure has been implemented, filling of the declaration lasts no more than 7 minutes, the costs related to the entire process being reduced by 50%.

During April, the Custom Service plans to conduct more awareness sessions dedicated to the economic agents in order to highlight the “e-Customs [6]” service benefits as well as to point out its role in promoting the export of local products.

From March 1, 2014, the electronic export declaration procedure will be applied in absolutely all customs border posts.

The electronic customs clearance procedure was assisted by the Customs Service partner, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the BRITE Program which supports the Moldovan customs system in facilitating the international trade and absorbing the best international practices in the field.