The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) celebrated today, the International Customs Day under the slogan 'Customs and Partners Integration', highlighting its successful experience in integrating with business partners regionally and globally.

In a speech delivered during the ceremony, The Governor of ZATCA, H.E. Engineer Suhail bin Muhammad Abanmi, said that ZATCA joins the world in marking this year's day with the aim of promoting its slogan, which focuses on importance of partnership and its role in supporting the customs ecosystem, stressing that ZATCA is constantly pursuing to support customs cooperation, maximizing existing partnerships, and creating new ones.

Attended by excellencies and senior officials from a number of ZATCA's relevant partners in the customs industry, H.E. Abanmi shared the most prominent successful customs experiences of ZATCA during 2023, which achieved integration with partners regionally and globally in the customs industry, developing human capabilities in customs, and improving procedures in light of the technical developments to realize ZATCA's goals in facilitating trade, enhancing supply chain and border security, and supporting the Saudi Arabia's  position as a global logistics hub. ​

H.E. the Governor of ZATCA, praised the integrated work achieved by ZATCA in collaboration with its customs partners, highlighting the positive results across various functions of ZATCA at all its land, sea, and air customs ports.​

ZATCA's Governor stressed that the Authority is keen to capitalize on gains it achieved with its partners recently, pursuing simultaneously to create new partnerships that help achieve its goals and fulfill its obligations. 

He added that ZATCA supports all initiatives of the World Customs Organization, through its customs services that depend on maximizing advantage of the advanced technologies, and analyzing data efficiently and effectively, which contributes to enabling economical sustainability and prosperity of societies by enhancing security and streamlining global trade.

H.E. Abanmi also noted the success of ZATCA in accelerating customs clearance operations recently, by reaching a record time of implementing the Clearance Within Two Hours Initiative and automating customs procedures in cooperation with its partners at the clearance authorities. This success contributes to the Saudi Arabia's transformation into a global logistics hub in line with the Saudi Vision 2030 goals.

ZATCA's celebration of International Customs Day witnessed the graduation of a new batch of Ameen Program, including 345 male and female university graduates who excellently completed a year-long intensive training program for developing their expertise and cognitive and applied skills in  ​various fields of customs work.

The ceremony included the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between ZATCA and the General Authority of Foreign Trade (GAFT), with the aim of improving cooperation and increasing coordination between the two sectors, as well as a MoC with the Saudi Logistics Academy in the field of customs training and development to support human resources.

The ceremony also witnessed honoring ZATCA's partners success in various fields that included both public and private sectors, like the customs clearance ecosystem, and those who contributed to achieving ZATCA's goals.