Awaiting e-customs – Simpler procedures and cargo center construction to improve logistics in Serbia

According the latest report of the World Bank, Serbia ranks 63rd when it comes to the quality of logistics. Germany tops the list, while majority of the neighboring countries, Croatia (55), Romania (40), Slovenia (38), Hungary (33) ranks higher than we are.

If it is a comforting fact, we made progress on the World Bank list which is published every second year. In 2012, Serbia ranked 75th.

The World Bank report ranks the counties in line with a couple of criteria, most important of which are customs efficiency, infrastructure quality, transport quality and logistics time.

Since Serbia is well-positioned geographically and Belgrade is the regional center, we wonder how to use the potential.

Nedjo Mandic, president of the Chamber of Commerce International transport and logistics, says for eKapija, to expect progress next year.

- Befory Hungary joined the EU, we had had 24-hour delays at the border crossing Nickelsdorf and the lines of trucks which had never been shorter than 10 kilometers. There are no delays now but the crowds moved to our place. The problem will be solved in 2015 when Serbia joins EU/EFTA Convention on mutual transit procedure so everything will function as if we joined the EU.

As he says, transport will be more efficient with one supplementary form from the place of loading to the unloading place without additional papers at borders. When it comes to quality of Serbian transporters, Mandic says that quality and professionalism of Serbian carriers is at very high level and ads that regulations in international road freight transports comply with EU.

When we have already built a house next to the road, Mandic says, it would be good to use that position.

- Construction of cargo center in our country would generate opportunity to attract goods from Turkey and the Middle East. Huge, logistics centers similar to the ones around Budapest should be built in the surroundings of Belgrade.

Dusko Radovic, as well, director of Transfer dealing with customs representation, organization of the international transport and goods storage, mentions Hungary as a good example.

On the other hand, as main advantages of Belgrade, Radovic points out extremely favorable geographical position- main cities in the region are up to 400-500 km far and mostly well-connected with highways.

- An increasing number of foreign companies open its branch offices in Belgrade and connects its logistics to Serbia. In late 2000, Belgrade started taking over the leading role as the regional center for the countries of south Europe and the Balkans. This favorable trend should maintain through simple legislation in the field of customs processes and procedures as well as through quicker issuance of permits for investors and decrease in administrative trouble spots.

A good news is coming from the Customs Administration. Namely, NCTS – New computerized transit system, the first electronic, paper-free customs process in Serbia, will be tested in late 2014, implementation in national framework is planned for early next year and the joining the Convention on mutual transit for mid 2015.

The Customs for eKapija is announcing implementation of the system of “authorized legal entities” and development of registry in line with EU standards which create partnership relationship between private and public sector.

- According to the plan, the system will be tested during the fall 2014 and immediately after that it will be possible to submit request for obtaining the status of OLE. The base for approvals is the companies using simple customs procedures as well as other successful companies – Customs representatives explain.

As they say, implementation of all these new things is a very complicated process which requires sufficient adaptation and there are also technical and human resource challenges necessary to be dealt with.

- Since countries from the region, such as Croatia, have already been to similar experience during the EU joining process, we are trying to learn from examples in order to avoid trouble spots and prevent delays.

During negotiations for joining EU, there should be a number of changes with the final objective to implement e-customs i.e. paper-free process in all segments. Dealing with this puzzle gradually, evolution of the entire system will be generated which will result in Serbian customs functioning entirely in line with the EU standards.

Logistics Performance Index (LPI)

Logistics Performance Index is an interactive tool generated in order to help countries and identify challenges and options they encounter in the business in the field of trade and logistics as well as recommendations about what countries can do to improve their performances.

The World Bank report is available HERE.

Marija Kambic