World Customs Organization to celebrate 2013 as the Year of Innovation

Brussels, 3 December 2012 

Press Release

The Secretary General of the WCO, Kunio Mikuriya, is pleased to announce that 2013 will be dedicated to promoting innovation under the slogan "Innovation for Customs progress”.

“WCO Members and their partners will have the opportunity to promote innovative ideas and practices that they have implemented, new partnerships that they have developed, as well as creative solutions and technologies that they have adopted,” said the Secretary General.

The Year of innovation will be launched on International Customs Day, celebrated annually by the global Customs community on 26 January in honour of the inaugural session of the Customs Co-operation Council (CCC) which took place on 26 January 1953.

In 1994, the CCC adopted the informal working name "World Customs Organization" to better reflect its worldwide growth in membership which now totals 179 Customs administrations.

Customs and its stakeholders are urged to be innovative and creative in taking forward the innovation theme in all its facets throughout 2013.

The WCO invites the Customs community to diarise 26 January.