KUALA LUMPUR: The Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI) is confident that Malaysia's single window trade initiative, to harmonise with China's customs system, will facilitate business and trade operations by reducing red tape, coordinating and launching Malaysia-China cross-border trade processes.
Its minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said in the current digital era the national single window (NSW) initiative reflects both governments' commitment to leverage technology from the bilateral trade standpoint.
"The government and MITI will also prioritise expanding the NSW's reach to integrate with ASEAN's single window (initiative)," he said at My E.G. Services Bhd
and the Federation of Malaysian Freight Forwarders (FMFF) cooperation agreement signing ceremony today.
The partnership establishes ZTrade as a NSW platform with ZTrade putting together the best adapted features from China's single window implementation.
"There is a lot of potential for ASEAN members to increase trade with each other,” he said, adding that intra-ASEAN trade is at the 23-25 per cent level.
"Thus, the ASEAN single window initiative is also able to strengthen the country's position in the ASEAN economic community, and open up greater opportunities for regional trade and economic integration," he said.
MITI is also committed to working closely with the Finance Ministry and China's General Administration of Customs to ensure the successful implementation of "one interoperability window” to foster a more efficient, transparent, secure and resilient trade landscape.
On June 19, 2024, Malaysia and China agreed to implement another cycle of the five-year programme for economic and trade cooperation established in 2013.
This includes working together to ensure the successful implementation of the single window interoperability.
On ZTrade, Tengku Zafrul said companies can benefit from reduced costs, speedier clearances and improved communication with regulatory agencies.
"This raises competitiveness at the global level and fosters a conducive environment for businesses to thrive on innovation," he said.
The collaboration includes promoting the platform to businesses and government ministries and agencies, providing training and support to platform users, and introducing and jointly market services to FMFF members.
ZTrade is a Web 3 platform that verifies and exchanges digitised trade documents for the trading of goods between China and its global trading partners. - Bernama
