Select Committee on Trade, Industry lauds GCNet

Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism, led by its Chair, Nana Amaniampong Marfo, have paid a working visit to the Ghana Community Network (GCNet) Services Limited.

He stated that the working visit was to ascertain the state of preparedness of the GCNet to commence the paperless initiative from September 1, 2017.

It was also to know the possible challenges GCNet faced and how the committee could intervene to ensure the Vice President’s reforms at the ports were achieved.

In a presentation to the members of the Select Committee, the Product Development Manager, Mr Carl Sackey, explained that GCNet’s systems had been designed to support a paperless regime since 2002.

Eliminating paper

He assured the visiting parliamentary delegation that following the directive by the Vice-President, GCNet had developed enhancements to the electronic delivery order and online container booking platforms of its systems.

Mr Sackey said all systems were being configured to eliminate all forms of paper processing in the clearance chain.

He also announced that GCNet had kick-started piloted paperless operation from August 1 in Takoradi and intended scaling it up to Tema to test the readiness of the e-applications configured for the September 1 deadline and that enforcement was the key to the success of the paperless initiative since the infrastructure had already been deployed.

Mr Sackey told the MPs that GCNet, as part of tracking performance of its systems, had deployed an information text code – 1477 to all networks with the declaration number – an SMS alert system that helped to track the status of the clearance process by a customer.

Policy decisions

The Deputy General Manager, Mr Emmanuel Darko, thanked the delegation for the visit and hoped the knowledge gathered about the operations of GCNet, would positively influence policy decisions in improving the business competitiveness of the country.

Mr Marfo expressed his satisfaction with the measures put in place by GCNet to meet the deadline for the execution of the port reforms announced at the May 17 Port Efficiency Conference in Accra.

The members of the Select Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism were taken on a guided tour of the Networking Operating Centre and some offices of the GCNet by the Chief Technical Officer, Mr Matthew Soputamit.