Lars Karlsson: CapacityNow

Yesterday I was in Denmark for a meeting with Danish Customs colleagues. In the afternoon I took the day off and stayed for a few hours in Copenhagen, a wonderful city. 

Here I am enjoying a typical Danish lunch meal, red sausage (pölse) bread, mustard and tomato. And the nost important thing, a Danish beer from Carlsberg.

Since I have lived by the Baltic Sea entrance and Öresund directly across from Copenhagen most if my life, it has always been great to visit Copenhagen. 

This is Nyhavn (New Harbour) that used to be a rough neighborhood in my youth when we had to take the boat over the sea. Now Nyhavn is a great place full of tourists, but also with some very nice retaurants.

Since it was an extra day between a holiday and the weekend, and great weather, the streets were packed with people and we had a great day in Denmark.

World Economic Forum (WEF) has published an interactive map that shows the scale and complexity of the world’s shipping routes. 

If you’ve ever doubted the scale of shipping around the world, here are 250 million things that will convince you of its sheer size.

Commercial shipping is vital to the movement of goods around the world, and a cornerstone of global trade. As this map from Kiln, a data visualization company, highlights, its complexity and size should not be underestimated.

I love this initiative. Read the article here

Customs compliance is the new black! We have talked about it for a decade already, but the last years we have seen how it works in reality on the ground. 

Today everybody wants compliance. In June KGH Education, together with ICI.BR starts a higher education programme to certify Trade Compliance Officers in Brazil. We have the opening conference and event of the new certification and compliance education programme, where I will give the Key Note Openlng Speech, on June 16 in Sao Paulo.

Customs are designing and implementing new Compliance Management models under the Authorised Economic Operator(AEO) Concept in the World Customs Organization SAFE Framework of Standards. The new AEO programmes are holistic and covering both compliance and security areas combining AEO with Trusted Trader model of WCO Revised Kyoto Convention. Many of those countries that already have AEO programmes are now in the process of updating and upgrading their programmes to AEO-TTP standard. For the moment we are helping seven countries to either design, develop and implement new AEO models or modernize and updating already operational programmes. We are champions and global market leaders on AEO, Trusted Traders and compliance management.

For private sector it is purely about common sense and good business to be compliant. Compliance is about getting better control over process, rules, competence and costs. There are studies showing that compliant companies are 20-25 % more profitable than non-compliant business. 

Compliance is king. So if you want to run a successful business related to international trade in the future, don’t miss this train. It is leaving the station and you should buy a ticket to future success right now.