Customs administration reform and modernisation in Eritrea

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis offers a descriptive study of the empirical customs issues that are required to reformthe Eritrean Customs Administration towards its alignment to the global situation. The firstchapter as a general introduction encompasses the background, the research premise and themethodology adopted. The second chapter discusses public service reform by putting emphasison institutional and regulatory reform as framework of analysis. The intention is to review thegeneric characteristics of public service reform as macro-environment of customs administrationin order to analyze the attributes of the general context shared by customs as a public service.Considering customs as a component of the broader environment of public service, the thirdchapter of the thesis focuses on the contemporary body of knowledge of customs administrationthat serves as a conceptual framework and micro-analysis of customs. In this section, the coreissues and priorities of customs' service modernisation are highlighted; customs' best practices,standards and procedures as seen from the perspective ofthe new challenges of globalisation arealso reviewed. From these reviews chapter three underlies two basic facts. First it is justifiedthat raising customs' operation to a uniform, high standard procedure and achieving excellencein the customs service is a prerequisite for trade and tourism in general and promoting export inparticular. Second, investment decisions will be made on the basis of a country's ability toprovide an environment that is conducive to maintain a reliable, low-cost flow of goods andcomponents with minimal trade barriers.Furthermore, the international trade, social and economic environments are in fact changing.World economies and communities are becoming more reliant on cooperation, partnerships,understanding and harmonisation. Factors such as growth in trade volume and tourism, tradeliberalisation and investment, falling transport and communications costs and increasinginternational competition are driving customs administrations world-wide to change theirtraditional procedures.More importantly, customs administrations are expected to manage ever-increasing complexitiesand levels of transactions with static or ever-decreasing resources. Similarly, customs arerequested to strike and maintain the right balance between control and facilitation. Hence, thisthesis builds on the premise that Eritrea should align its customs administration to the globalsituation as an essential institution of national and international policy by reforming andmodernising its management methods and operational procedures. In the above idea, while reform measures in customs administration are aimed at identifyingalternative ways and means of achieving greater efficiency and effectiveness in the servicedelivery, customs modernisation implies the change in or adoption of best managementpractices, standards and procedures facilitated by up-to-date information technology, in order tobring the fun benefits of customs as contributor to economic growth in Eritrea.This positive correlation between effective customs administration and the economic growthensured - inter alia through increased volume of trade and tourist flows as wen as direct foreigninvestment - constitutes the bases for reviewing the Eritrean economic background in the fourthchapter, as a macro-context and as a guide for the required reform and modernisation measuresin Eritrean customs. The rationale is that any national public sector reform strategy is unlikely tosucceed unless it actively takes into account the macro-environment as determinant factor andpoint of departure in deciding the type of policies, institutions, and resources required for areform at micro-level. As a result it can be said that the state reforms that have already beencarried out in Eritrea are designed to create a favourable atmosphere, among others for the threecore potentials for economic growth in Eritrea, namely investment, export and tourism.However, these potentials collectively request customs modernisation for their positivecontribution to the Eritrean economy.Subsequently, the aforementioned background brings into perspective the need for reform andmodernisation measures in the face of the challenges of globalisation and in line to the intent ofthe macro-policy reforms and identified potentials of the Eritrean economy. Therefore, the thesisanalyzes in the fifth chapter the customs practice in Eritrea. And thereafter, it is concluded bythe two underpinning parameters as essentials for transforming the practice of customs in Eritrea.First, institutional transformation is required in the sense that one of the critical capabilities thathave lacked is the ability to formulate and analyse policies. Typically this implies that customshas been lacking institutions and their infrastructure along with the human resource base thatreflects the specialisation that is needed. Second, regulatory transformation is required in thesense that there should be an updated enabling environment in place as an instrument toimplement policies.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University