At the invitation of the Oceania Customs Organisation (OCO), the WCO Secretary General, Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, and the Head of the WCO Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB) Asia/Pacific (A/P), Mr. Kazunari Igarashi, visited the OCO Secretariat in Suva, Fiji on 28 July 2016. Mr. Seve Paeniu, Head of the OCO Secretariat, and his colleagues extended a warm welcome to the WCO representatives.

Secretary General Mikuriya took the floor to express his Organization’s appreciation for the OCO Secretariat’s continued partnership with the WCO in capacity building delivery activities and for its support with the outreach of WCO instruments and tools in the Pacific sub-region. In particular, he welcomed this week’s collaboration to hold back-to-back Sub-Regional Workshops on the Single Window and on Integrity, made possible by the excellent logistical coordination between the OCO and the ROCB A/P.

Mr. Paeniu took the opportunity to give a briefing on the OCO’s policy and priorities, describing ways forward for future collaboration based on a Memorandum of Understanding.

Both the WCO Secretary General and the Head of the OCO Secretariat reaffirmed their ongoing consultation and looked forward to future cooperation benefiting Customs administrations in the Pacific sub-region.