A WCO A/P Regional Accreditation Workshop on Risk Management was conducted from 23 to 27 January 2017 in the WCO Regional Training Centre of Malaysia (Royal Malaysian Customs Academy - AKMAL), in close cooperation with Malaysian Customs and the ROCB AP. This important event was funded by the Customs Cooperation Fund of Japan (CCF-Japan).

Following nominations by the WCO Members, the WCO Secretariat evaluated applications considering pre-determined criteria. This resulted in the selection of 13 participants from 11 countries to participate in the accreditation workshop.

During the opening ceremony, Mr. Saidi bin Ismail, Deputy Director of AKMAL and the WCO representative highlighted the importance of risk management in Customs daily work as well as the necessity of having a pool of highly qualified advisors to conduct workshops and provide support to Customs administrations in order to enhance existing risk management practices.

The WCO Accreditation Workshops on Risk Management are designed to develop a pool of advisors capable of using the WCO Risk Management Compendium, the WCO Diagnostic Framework and the WCO Capacity Building Development Compendium in order to deliver missions within Customs administrations on behalf of the WCO, leading to the development of effective risk management structures, procedures and products.

At the end of the event, candidates who successfully completed this Workshop were considered as pre-accredited and as a second phase would be invited to an in-country mission as co-facilitators. Pre-accredited candidates who are successful during the second phase will become WCO Accredited Risk Management Advisors.

Participants of the workshop also had the opportunity to attend the commemoration of the International Customs Day on the 26 of January organized in AKMAL. The event which was attended by the Honourable Minister of Finance II and officiated by the Honourable Chief Minister of Melaka had over 2,000 people also in attendance.

During the opening ceremony, the Director General of Customs welcomed the 2017 theme of the International Customs Day, “Data Analysis for Effective Border Management” recognizing the key role of analysis in customs daily efforts, and particularly in the risk management context.