Smart Customs — Laos' AI-Enabled Digital Customs Platform

On 2 June 2026, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Santiphab Phomvihane officially launched 'Smart Customs,' a centralised digital customs platform built with vendor iQURI Tech Co., Ltd. The platform merges customs and tax declarations, cargo and warehouse management, vehicle tracking, X-ray scanning, smart weighbridges, and electronic payments into a single 'Modern Customs Command Centre,' under a 19-module, five-year development roadmap (2026–2030) that includes an OCR module and a risk-management/data-analytics module.

The system builds on an earlier pilot: a strategic partnership between Thanaleng Dry Port and iQURI Tech was signed on 24 July 2025, and the Ministry of Finance signed a broader agreement with the vendor in April 2025. Phase-one rollout in 2026 covers six priority checkpoints — Thanaleng Dry Port and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Lao–Thai Friendship Bridges, Napao, Dansavanh and Boten — with later expansion planned to the 4th/5th Friendship Bridges and Vang Tao Dry Port, paired with a separate E-Tax Invoice platform launched 29 May 2026.

The 'AI' claim rests on the vendor's own description of applying 'advanced digital technology and artificial intelligence,' and on OCR and risk-management/data-analytics being named among the 19 planned modules; no independent press coverage details how AI is actually used, such as a specific model, algorithm, or accuracy figures. Because the national launch occurred only weeks before this record was compiled, no outcome data — clearance-time reductions, error-rate changes, or revenue attributable to the system — has been published. A widely circulated claim of a '34% annual customs revenue increase' could not be traced to a citable source specifically about Smart Customs and has been excluded as unverifiable.