Press Release

June 26, 2006

USTDA Awards Grant For APEC Demonstration Project

HANOI – The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) continued its support for increased trade efficiency in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region with the conferring of a $601,893 grant today to the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC).  The grant follows the successful demonstration of a secure end-to-end supply chain management system under the Secure Trade in the APEC Region (STAR) Initiative and will be used to fund the cost of an e-Manifest Pilot Project that will demonstrate the benefits of customs reform and modernization.

USTDA expects to highlight the pilot project during the November 2006 APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in Vietnam.  The project consists of a public-private partnership designed to support the implementation of the World Customs Organization Framework to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade and to further promote the STAR Initiative. 

An agreement officially conferring the grant was signed during a ceremony held today at the offices of GDVC in Hanoi, Vietnam.  Mr. Miguel Pardo de Zela, Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, and Mr. Vu Ngoc Anh, Deputy Director General of GDVC, signed the agreement on behalf of the U.S. and Vietnam governments, respectively. 

The demonstration project responds to GDVC’s plans to undertake a large-scale modernization of its facilities and processes using a World Bank loan and Vietnamese government funding.  The USTDA-funded project is designed to show the benefits of public-private collaboration using an eManifest system to improve security risk management, timeliness, completeness and accuracy of customs clearance transactions for airfreight carriers.

Unisys Corporation (Blue Bell, Pennsylvania) and FedEx Express Corporation (Memphis, Tennessee) will carry out the demonstration project, which will be undertaken with oversight from the National Center for APEC (Seattle, Washington).  In addition to the USTDA grant awarded today, Unisys and FedEx will contribute additional resources toward the completion of pilot project.

MEDIA INQUIRIES:
Donna Thiessen
(703) 875-4357

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