The Government of East Timor wants to simplify the administrative steps regarding the processing of imports and exports, in a bid to speed up overall procedures, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported on Monday.

The country’s authorities hope to reduce the overall time needed to complete the procedures, from a current average of nine days, to between 12 and 36 hours by 2020, the report said.

Fernanda Borges, Coordinator of the Fiscal Reform Commission – under East-Timor’s Ministry of Finance – said the Government would introduce a new electronic system that “will eliminate all the paperwork, reduce administrative costs and delays, minimise the possibility of errors and fraud, and facilitate foreign trade.”

She added that the time needed for authorities to process imports and exports of goods had already shrunk from 15 days in 2013 to currently nine days.

The East Timor Government began a comprehensive fiscal reform in 2015, introducing measures to strengthen the integrity and capacities of those government departments handling revenue collection.