The World Customs Organization (WCO), in cooperation with the WCO Asia/Pacific Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB A/P), has successfully held a Regional Workshop on Strategic Leadership on Information Technology at the Royal Malaysian Customs Training Center (RMCTC), in Melaka, Malaysia on 21 and 22 March 2016. The Workshop, supported by the Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF) Japan, was attended by 23 participants from WCO Member Administrations in the Asia Pacific Region. Mr. Syaidi Ismail, Director of the RMCTC emphasized in his opening remark the importance of IT to support Customs work in the digital era and the alignment between IT implementation and Customs Administrations’ objectives.

The goal of the Workshop was to raise awareness and understanding with regard to the strategic role of senior-management-level officials in Customs Administrations to oversee and steer the implementation of IT to support Customs modernization and reform. The facilitators of the Workshop shared the importance of strategic planning, appropriate governance of IT projects and aligning IT and organizational objectives. The participants acknowledged that the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) had drawn the attention of political leaders and that this could be the golden opportunity to drive IT Implementation.