At the invitation of Mr. Andreas Tállai, Commissioner of the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Administration (NTCA), WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya attended the Conference on "Modern Platforms of Interaction - Enhancing Cooperation between Tax and Customs Administrations" held at the National University of Public Service in Budapest, Hungary, on 23 November 2016. 

Following the opening speech by Mr. Mihály Varga, Minister for National Economy, Dr. Mikuriya spoke about the WCO's initiatives to enhance Customs-Tax cooperation while emphasizing the importance of keeping Customs functional and well-resourced to discharge its responsibility, in both fiscal and non-fiscal areas, under any organizational arrangement.

The meeting was attended by several Heads and representatives of Customs, Tax and Revenue administrations, as well as by Mr. Miguel Silva Pinto, Executive Secretary of the Inter-European Organization of Tax Administrations (IOTA) and Deputy Director General of the Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority, and they discussed the interaction between the Customs and Tax administrations from a wide range of viewpoints.

On the previous day, Secretary General Mikuriya spoke at the ceremony to rename the WCO Regional Training Centre (RTC) after the late Lieutenant General Arnold Mihály (1945-2013) who, in 2001 in his then capacity as Commissioner of the Hungarian Customs and Financial Guard, conceived and set up the Hungarian Customs Training Centre as the first WCO RTC. Attendees at the ceremony included members of his family and several Heads of Customs administrations, who applauded his vision and legacy.

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Photos:

1) Group photo;

2) From left to right: WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga, and Commissioner of the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Administration (NTCA) Andreas Tállai.