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. 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.

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. The national rollout was paired with a separate E-Tax Invoice platform launched 29 May 2026, both framed within Laos's National Digital Economy Development Strategy 2021–2030.

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.

Read the full analysis: https://asianews.network/laos-finance-ministry-launches-smart-customs-system-to-drive-digital-transformation-trade-efficiency/