Photo is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]
Photo is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]

Foreign-going vessels entering or leaving South Korean ports will soon be able to complete all required government notifications in a single submission. The government is moving to integrate the separate reporting systems of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Ministry of Justice, the Korea Customs Service and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency into a unified one-stop filing framework.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced Wednesday that it will launch a research project Thursday, together with the three other agencies, to develop an integrated reporting system for ship arrivals and departures.

Under current rules, operators of foreign-going vessels must file arrival and departure notifications separately with four different systems: the ministry's Port Management Information System (PORT-MIS), the Ministry of Justice's immigration management system, the Korea Customs Service's electronic customs clearance system (UNI-PASS) and the KDCA's quarantine integrated information system.

The process requires shipping agents and other filers to enter the same information — including the vessel name, International Maritime Organization (IMO) identification number, and arrival and departure times — repeatedly into each agency's own forms, a burden that has long drawn complaints from the industry.

The government operated a consolidated filing process using a unified form shared among the ministry and customs, immigration and quarantine agencies from 1999, but reporting became fragmented again as each agency subsequently built and operated its own independent system.

The research initiative was prompted by calls from the field. The Korea Shipping Agents Association petitioned for simplified reporting procedures, which led the four agencies to jointly pursue an integrated system.

Busan, Incheon, Yeosu-Gwangyang and Ulsan port authorities — which co-operate PORT-MIS with the ministry — will share the project costs. An advisory committee drawing on officials from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Ministry of Justice, the Korea Customs Service and the KDCA, along with experts from academia and industry, will be formed to develop a blueprint for the unified system.

The ministry expects that a one-stop framework — in which information is entered once and shared across all relevant agencies — will reduce the administrative burden on filers and make the reporting process significantly more efficient.

"We will work closely with the relevant agencies to build an integrated ship arrival and departure reporting system that reduces inconvenience for the public," said Kim Hye-jeong, director general of the ministry's shipping and logistics bureau.


adastra@heraldcorp.com