Case Study · 01 of 05
Ecuador's prior customs system (SICE, developed by Peru) had reached its limits. A previous attempt to replace it had failed, leaving the government cautious about another foreign platform.
President Rafael Correa wanted to model his administration's digital reform on Korea's e-government — a vision that turned a procurement decision into a government-to-government collaboration.
The first wholesale UNI-PASS deployment overseas: all 14 modules — portal, single window, import/export cargo and clearance, post-clearance, risk and valuation, DW, KMS, legal, EWACS — delivered in 27 months.
Bilateral protocols signed at presidential level (Lee Myung-bak ↔ Rafael Correa, Sept 2010). ~110 staff working in parallel between Guayaquil and a Daejeon development center.
Full SICE-to-ECUAPASS cutover. Clearance time reduced from seven days to five. Logistics cost savings of over USD 210 million per year — the figure cited in CUPIA's WCO Innovation Award (2013).
Within a month of the award, Colombia (DIAN) and Bolivia (ANB) signed MOUs to adopt UNI-PASS. Latin America's bridgehead was secured.
"The first full-package UNI-PASS export to a nation funding it 100% from its own budget — Latin America's bridgehead."
Source — CUPIA Ecuador White Paper