Towards adaptable Single Windows for International Trade - A SIDS perspective

Patricia R. Francis is currently a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council, Chair of the Government of Jamaica's Trade Facilitation Task Force and sits on the Boards of Jamaica Producers Group, Portland JSX, Whiteshield Partners of Public Policy and Strategy, several family-owned companies, and the Advisory Board of IESE Graduate Business School.

She is a global leader in trade and development and the former Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (2006-2013), as well as the former President of JAMPRO (1995-2006).

In 2016 she headed the UN Secretary General's High-Level Panel on Women's Economic Empowerment and between 2018-2020 she was Special Advisor to the Executive Director of UN Women.

Patricia has also been a member of the UK House of Lords All Parliamentary Group and a member of the Eminent Persons Group.

Mr. Antony Derjacques was appointed Seychelles Minister for Transport on 3rd November 2020.

The following falls under his portfolio: The Department of Land Transport, the Department of Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine, Air Seychelles. Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority, Seychelles Maritime Safety Authority, Seychelles Lands Transport Authority, Seychelles Ports Authority, Seychelles Public Transport Corporation and Vehicle Testing Station.

He is a Lawyer and been in practice for 30 years. He was trained in British Universities.

Shamika N. Sirimanne is the Director of the Division on Technology and Logistics of UNCTAD.  She leads UNCTAD's trade logistics programme, including the work on trade facilitation, maritime transport, port management, and e-commerce and the digital economy. She also supervises UNCTAD’s largest technical cooperation programme, ASYCUDA—the Automated System for Customs. 

Ms. Sirimanne has extensive experience in development policy, research and technical cooperation gained from international organizations, national governments, think tanks and universities. Prior to UNCTAD, she served as the Director of the ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), where she spearheaded major regional cooperation programmes such as the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway initiative, and Regional Drought Monitoring Mechanism.

During her tenure with ESCAP, Ms. Sirimanne also headed the trade facilitation programme, and led the macroeconomic policy work and ESCAP’s flagship publication, Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific. Prior to that, Ms. Sirimanne was with the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), where she led the economic policy team and the Economic Report on Africa, the flagship publication of ECA. She has also worked for the Canadian Ministry of Finance and the World Bank. Ms. Sirimanne holds a PhD in Economics.

Owen Holder is currently the Barbados Comptroller of Customs.

He has worked a Programme Officer with UNCTAD where he was stationed in Jamaica with responsibilities for managing activities related to ASYCUDA World, the Electronic Single Window and the Port Community System. He lead a team to implement ASYCUDA World in St. Helena and was Project Manager for the implementation of ASYCUDA World in Barbados.

He received a Master degree in Business Administration form the University of Surrey and a double Master degree from the University of Canberra in International Customs Law and Administration and Master in International Revenue Administration.

Mr. Holder was a certified lecture at University of Canberra where he completed CCLEC/University of Canberra lectures for the Diploma in Customs Management Studies through the region.

Stanley Trief is currently the Manager of the Vanuatu electronic Single Window (VeSW) Project. The VeSW Project is funded by the Enhance Integrated Framework (EIF) and the Australian Government with support from the Vanuatu Government. Using ASYCUDA World as the system’s platform, the VeSW Project commenced in 2019.

Prior to managing the VeSW Project, Stanley was the Manager of Vanuatu’s ASYCUDA World Project from 2016 – 2018. The Project was to upgrade the Customs system in Vanuatu from ASYCUDA++, which Vanuatu was using since 1999, to the latest version of ASYCUDA.

Stanley is a customs manager by profession, managing the Customs Border Control and Enforcement unit of Vanuatu Customs from 2011 to 2015. He is also a qualified Computer Science graduate and was managing the Information, Communication and Telecommunication unit of Vanuatu since 2004 prior to moving to Customs operations.

In the Pacific region, Stanley has conducted multiple Customs modernization assessments in Pacific Island countries since 2006 to 2019, before the borders closed due to the pandemic.

Stanley holds a Bachelor of Science from the New Zealand University of Waikato and a Master of International Customs Law and Administration from the Australian University of Canberra. He is passionate about implementing reform and modernization initiatives in both Customs and in the areas trade of facilitation.

Özlem Soysanli is a Senior Technical Officer at the World Customs Organization (WCO) in Brussels, Belgium.

She joined the WCO Compliance and Facilitation Directorate in August 2018. She previously worked in various capacities in the Turkish Customs Administration for over 22 years, mainly in the area of Customs legislation. She also worked as the Customs Counsellor at the Turkish Embassy in Brussels from 2014 to 2018 with the responsibility of representing the Turkish Customs at the WCO as well as at Belgium Customs.

Within the Procedures and Facilitation Sub-Directorate, she is primarily in charge of the Permanent Technical Committee (PTC), the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), the National Trade Facilitation Committees (NCTFs), the WCO Mercator Programme and the WCO Economic Competitiveness Package (ECP). She is also part of the Disruptive Technologies and Smart Customs Projects teams.