Public Consultations

1. The Ministry of Finance (“MOF”) invited the public to provide feedback on the draft Free Trade Zones (Amendment) Bill 2023 from 20 March to 9 April 2023. The draft Bill proposed legislative amendments to the Free Trade Zones (FTZ) Act 1966 to update and strengthen our FTZ regime, by enabling better oversight of goods flowing through the FTZs while still ensuring efficient movement of goods.

2. The feedback received was generally supportive of the proposed amendments. Key feedback pertained to the following amendments:

• Introduction of licensing regimes for FTZ operators and FTZ cargo handlers 

• Requirements for FTZ operators, cargo handlers and shipping agents to collect and transmit relevant information to improve cargo visibility within the FTZ.

MOF’s responses to the key feedback on the proposed legislative amendments are in Annex A.

3. The proposed legislative changes will be incorporated into the Free Trade Zones (Amendment) Bill 2023 and presented to Parliament in September 2023. MOF thanks all individuals and organisations for the feedback.