Cambodia will launch the Global Travel Assessment System (GTAS), a web application for improving border security and to enable government agencies to automate the identification of high-risk air travellers before they enter the country.

The GTAS will be in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organization standards and guidelines.

Minister in Charge of the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation Mao Havannall chaired an inter-ministerial meeting on Wednesday with representatives from the Ministry of Economy to discuss the launch of GTAS.

The meeting was to disseminate the contents of the inter-ministerial announcement of the launch of the air passenger risk assessment system and the decision on the establishment of the inter-ministerial working group to implement the system.

It was also to draft guidelines on the obligations and methods of providing air passenger data, accompanied by the Cambodia API Operation Manual and the Cambodia PNR Operation Manual to national and international airline operators and stakeholders.

The system will allow officials to receive advanced information and passengers’ names who enter and leave Cambodia via national and international airline operators and private commercial airlines with all data kept confidential.

Havannall said that the GTAS will upgrade the country’s aviation sector with the guidelines of world aviation organizations.

As of November last year, Cambodia’s arrival of foreign visitors stood at 1.2 million, a 78 percent drop as compared with the same period in 2019. Of the number 746,133 foreign visitors entered Cambodia by air.

• Tags: COVID-19 in Cambodia, GTAS, travellers