SONGKHLA: The second customs clearance checkpoint with Malaysia in Songkhla’s Sadao district will start operating in October next year, the Sadao customs chief said.
Padoemdej Munkung was reporting the progress of the construction of the second customs checkpoint in Sadao to a delegation of senior officials from the Foreign Trade Department (FTD) who visited the Sadao and Padang Besar customs checkpoints in Songkhla recently to monitor the situation regarding border trade with Malaysia.
Padoemdej said the construction of the new customs checkpoint in Sadao on a plot of 596 rai had progressed a lot. The construction with a budget of 1.532 billion baht started in May 2016.
The delegation was led by Jittima Srithaporn, deputy director general of the FTD.
During the visit, Jittima told reporters that the FTD would push for an increase in border trade with Malaysia and transborder trade to third countries via Malaysia to reach the value of 2 trillion baht per year by 2027.
Jittima was informed during the visit that the value of border trade at the Sadao and Padang Besar customs checkpoints reached 569 billion baht last year.
For this year, border-trade value from January to June has reached 296.81 billion baht, an increase of 0.41% from the same period last year. This broke down to export value of 171.9 billion baht and import value of 124.91 billion baht.
During the visit, the delegation also observed the operations of one-stop service (OSS) centres at the Sadao and Padang Besar border checkpoints. The OSS centres have been opened to make it more convenient for exporters and importers to ship their goods across the border.
The FTD has so far opened 10 OSS centres in eight border provinces, namely Chiang Rai, Tak, Nong Khai, Nakhon Phanom, Mukdahan, Trat, Udon Thani and Songkhla.
There are two OSS centres in Songkhla at the Sadao and Padang Besar customs checkpoints. Last year, 1,278 people used the services at the Sadao OSS centre and 3,756 at the Padang Besar OSS centre. - The Nation/ANN
