The project provided technical assistance to Member Countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (hereafter ASEAN) under the ASEAN-EU Programme for Regional Integration Support (hereafter APRIS) in the establishment and pilot implementation of the ASEAN Single Window (hereafter ASW) as mandated by Leaders at their Tenth Summit, Bali, October 2003.
The overall objective of the project was to support the integration, and in particular the regional economic integration process in ASEAN by facilitating access to relevant experience and know-how, including from the EU, while contributing to strengthened EU-ASEAN relations and EC-ASEAN dialogue. More specifically, the Programme was tasked with:
1. Acting as a catalyst for developing a regional approach for regional co-operation, as established by ASEAN,
2. Contributing to the preparation of proposals for possible agreement by ASEAN bodies and/or develop new actions,
3. Assisting with streamlining ASEAN’s co-ordination mechanisms and information dissemination system,
4. Assisting with actions identified through the EC-ASEAN dialogue.
The specific objective of the project ensured the implementation of the specific component of the APRIS programme and this was the Development of Guidelines for establishment of the Single Window throughout ASEAN.
The main outputs of the project included:
With the assistance of ASEAN Secretariat and the project team the agreement to establish and implement the ASW was drafted and adopted;
• A conceptual model of the ASW was developed as the common environment in which the ASW operate and communicate;
• The definition of NSW as a model system common to all ASEAN Member Countries, enabling:
• Single submission of data and information,
• Single and synchronous processing of data and information, and
• Single decision making for customs release and clearance of cargo
was adopted (page 9 of the Main Annex),
• The Technical Guidelines and the more elaborate Technical Documentation will assist ASEAN Member Countries in implementing the concepts on a national basis,
• After thorough preparatory work the testing of pilot NSWs in the Philippines and Thailand as well as pilot application of ASW between and among the two countries commenced in July 2006, and still ongoing.