{"id":53396,"date":"2020-12-04T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T17:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/industry\/blog\/?p=53396"},"modified":"2025-04-21T14:48:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T21:48:45","slug":"technology-for-customs-in-the-time-of-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/government\/2020\/12\/04\/technology-for-customs-in-the-time-of-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology for customs in the time of the pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"a<\/p>\n

In November, Microsoft participated in the WCO Tech-Con Summit<\/a> organized by the World Customs Organization that brought together more than 1100 attendees from 183 Customs administrations across the globe who collectively process approximately 98 percent of world trade.<\/p>\n

The conference focused on the global economic crisis caused by the pandemic, where health and safety took precedence over economic development, where lockdowns negatively impacted supply chains, halted trade, and consequently increased unemployment, bankruptcies, and rises in fraud and illicit trade. Key technological challenges and opportunities in times of crisis were other key conference discussion topics.<\/p>\n

\"three<\/p>\n

While taking a painful toll on health and wellbeing, the pandemic offered organizations the opportunity to pause and reimagine certain portions of customs and trade processes. The resulting reimagining conversations focused on how to create more resilient supply chains, an always-on government that incorporates sustainability, and social inclusion into its design processes and success criteria. All parties understood that transparency and trust are more important than ever as customs organizations do their best to better implement safe and fair trade.<\/p>\n

The rising importance of digitalization, e-commerce, and the need to redesign the modern workplace calls for accelerated adoption of technology, combined with an increased emphasis on the digital skilling of workers across the customs and trade ecosystem.<\/p>\n

How can technology support recovery plans across different horizons?<\/h2>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

During the Respond to Crisis<\/strong> phase, collaboration is paramount in all scenarios ranging from cross-agency collaboration to public-private consultations, to customs-healthcare or customs-postal cooperation to mitigate medical supply chain gaps, and to ensuring the wellbeing of vulnerable populations in lockdown.<\/p>\n

Some of the capabilities and solutions Microsoft and its partners can provide this ecosystem are:<\/p>\n