e-Customs Development

The rapid innovation of information technologies and emerging e-commerce environment are gearing our department to evolve into an e-Customs organisation. The Information Technology Management Group, staffed by 20 technical staff, was established in the Office of Information Technology in April 2003 to achieve synergy and to enable flexibility of the department in deploying resources. To provide IT solutions to enhance internal operations and external communications with the community, a wide range of IT projects were implemented or endorsed within the department.

Information Systems Strategy Study (ISSS)

2. The Information Systems Strategy Study was completed in early 2003. The study recommended an IT program to support the department to advance into an intelligence-led and knowledge-centric organisation in meeting future challenges. The program embodies the following strategic aims:-

3. The program will be implemented by phases. Phase I will consolidate various intelligence data kept by the operational and investigation units, and will provide the necessary functionality supporting risk management and assessment on all operational fronts. Phase II will concentrate on revamping the IT infrastructure to pave way for Phase III IT projects which support e-services and corporate resources management. The department has started to implement Phase I program since mid 2004.

Electronic Systems in Trade Facilitation

4. The department is steering towards the facilitation and promotion of e-business via the development of electronic systems for submission of certain trade documents. The electronic system for the Textile Trader Registration Scheme was successfully implemented in May 2003. The system enables the traders to submit the Textile Notifications by electronic means.

5. The Electronic System for Cargo Manifest (EMAN) is another project launched to facilitate trade. With the successful implementation of EMAN Phase I in April 2003, the government now receives cargo manifest of air, rail and sea modes of transport by electronic means. Parallel submission of either electronic or paper form of the manifest was allowed in the initial stage. In view of a smooth run-in of the EMAN services and a reasonable take-up rate of air and rail transport, the government ended the transitional period in July 2004 to mandate submission of the manifest of air and rail in electronic form.

6. EMAN Phase II is expected to come to service in April 2005. The objective of the project is to fortify the back-end processing power in order to support more generic functions on manifest processing and matching at the government's end.

7. According to a feasibility study completed in June 2002, establishing an electronic system for submitting and processing road manifest could facilitate the swift traffic flow at Land Boundary Control Points without compromising Customs' capability in processing the voluminous cargoes. Industry stakeholders were consulted in 2003. They did not have strong objection to submitting advanced cargo information electronically for Customs clearance purpose. Policy green light to go ahead with the Advance Cargo Information project was obtained in December 2004. The project is tentatively scheduled to be rolled out in the last quarter of 2008 based on preliminary estimation.

Land Boundary System (LBS)

8. The Land Boundary System (LBS) will be upgraded in July 2005 to pave way for the commissioning of the fourth land boundary control point with Customs clearance facilities for passengers and vehicles, namely Shenzhen Bay Control Point at Shekou in the Mainland. Upon the completion of the control point in mid 2006, the cross boundary traffic throughput is expected to rise from 37 000 daily crossings to an estimated 65 000. In light of the drastic increase, the processing power and network infrastructure of LBS will have to be massively upgraded to support Customs operations.

Air Cargo Clearance System (ACCS)

9. The Air Cargo Clearance System (ACCS) was successfully upgraded in June 2003 to process the surging number of air cargo consignments and to cater for the development of the air cargo hub at the Hong Kong International Airport. After the system upgrade, ACCS was able to handle twofold of the existing capacity of air cargo with expanded functions, including intermodal (air-to-land) transshipment cargo clearance, intelligent matching of cargo data in Chinese and acceptance of ISO port codes, while the efficiency and effectiveness in Customs clearance was not compromised.

10. To further expedite the air cargo flow at the new cargo terminal named "DHL Central Asia Hub" established at Chek Lap Kok in June 2004, mobile technology was introduced in ACCS. Through the wireless device and direct barcode scanning, Customs officers can make on-line enquiry on the status of a subject consignment within a few seconds and take appropriate action right on the spot. It saves the turnaround time to convey the consignment to the Customs Examination Hall for status enquiry and action.

Government Office Automation Programme (GOA)

11. The replacement of paper correspondence by e-mails as the main communication mode in Customs workplace was implemented under the Government Office Automation Programme. Since the rollout of the Pilot Accessibility Programme in June 2003, all staff members can access e-mail service and departmental information such as circulars and departmental orders through the 98 info-stations installed at various Customs offices.

Computer Forensic Laboratory (CFL)

12. The rapid development of IT not only enhances the efficiency of Customs operations, but also avails opportunities for offenders to exploit in perpetration of crimes. The investigation of computer related crimes and the collection of digital evidence thus become an imminent requirement of the department. The Computer Forensic Laboratory (CFL) was set up to assist the frontline investigators for the back-end analysis of digital evidence and to stand in court for substantiating the prosecution. There were 33 cyber crime cases handled by CFL in 2002 and the figures surged significantly to 63 in 2003 and 81 in 2004, representing a respective 91 percent and 145 percent growth in the workload of the CFL when compared with that of 2002.

13. Since its establishment in 2000, the CFL, with a strength of three trained officers, has processed a total of 238 cases involving 261 computers and 422 optical disc replicating machines. Of these 238 cases, the majorities are optical disc replication, Internet piracy and money laundering cases effected in Hong Kong.