At the invitation of the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office (RILO) Asia/Pacific (A/P), Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya attended the ceremony held in Seoul, Korea on 6 November 2017 to mark the 30th Anniversary of the first RILO and the birth of the global RILO network.

Following the welcome address by the Korea Customs Service Commissioner, Mr. Yung-Moon Kim, Secretary General Mikuriya delivered a congratulatory speech expressing his sincere appreciation to the past four host Administrations of the RILO A/P for their services, namely Hong Kong, China (1987-1998), Japan (1999-2003), China (2004-2011) and Korea (2012- present).  He recognized the gradual evolution of the RILO A/P nurtured by the four Administrations: (i) foundation (Hong Kong, China); (ii) capacity building (Japan); (iii) operations (China); (iv) and networking (Korea) with all 33 WCO A/P Members having joined the RILO network, inter-regional cooperation with the other RILOs during enforcement operations, as well as collaboration with other international organizations and business.  Dr. Mikuriya underlined the key contribution of the RILO network in collecting and analysing data, and sharing information with the global Customs community, which is faced with emerging challenges including e-commerce, security and illicit financial flows.  All other WCO regions have followed the example of the A/P region in establishing their own RILOs.

Mr. Visvanath Das, Director General of the Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority (FRCA) and WCO Vice -Chair for the A/P region, and the Customs representatives from Hong Kong China, Japan and China in their capacity as former host Administrations also expressed their congratulations, and renewed their commitment to supporting Customs cooperation through the RILO network.

Representatives of Member Customs administrations of the A/P region, representatives of other RILOs covering the WCO's six regions, and participants from relevant international organizations attended the celebration, and they all appreciated Korea Customs Service's warm hospitality.