The 17th Meeting of the Heads of Asia/Pacific WCO Regional Training Centres (RTCs) was held at the Customs Border Control Training Institute (CBCTI) in Cheonan, Korea, on 25-26 September 2019. The meeting was opened by Dr. Anna Cho, Director General of the CBCTI and was chaired by Mr. Jae-ho Jung, Director of Multilateral Cooperation Division of the Korea Customs Service. The Heads of the six RTCs in the region (namely RTC Fiji, RTC Hong Kong China, RTC India, RTC Japan, RTC Korea and RTC Malaysia), representatives from the WCO Secretariat, Asia/Pacific Vice-Chair Office and Asia/Pacific Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB A/P) participated in the meeting, as well as an observer from Indonesia Customs.
The Heads of RTCs exchanged views on how to enhance Customs capacities through strengthened professionalism and human resource networks so as to ultimately contribute to Customs modernization efforts in the region. The WCO provided recent updates on its policy and initiatives, especially, the effort to correctly assess the capacity building effects. RTC India updated on the A/P regional activities in 2018-2019 and described the managing approach adopted by the Vice-Chair A/P. Subsequently, the ROCB AP provided a report on the capacity building activities delivered in 2018-19. The RILO A/P also presented their activities and strengthen the necessity of co-operating with each RTC. Thereafter, all the RTCs provided their recent initiatives to enhance Customs professionalism and had an opportunity to learn from each other on training strategies and activities of the respective RTCs.
The delegates intensively discussed key topics to enhance the function of the RTCs in the region, such as way of performance measurement, development of professionalism, human resource development and training management. Each delegate presented how to improve the quality of workshops in the context of the training centre. The delegates shared the each RTC’s approach and confirmed the importance of grasping the beneficiaries’ needs and getting feedback from participants to assess the effectiveness of the workshop.
On this opportunity, the delegates visited the well-advanced Customs Learning Centre at CBCTI. The CBCTI also kindly arranged a site visit to the Incheon Express Cargo Clearance Centre and K9 Training Centre which showcased a series of reform measures taken to facilitate and promote trade without hampering the security and safety.