The 19th Meeting of the Heads of Asia/Pacific WCO Regional Training Centers (RTCs) was held virtually on 27 – 28 October 2021 hosted by the Asia/Pacific Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB A/P). The Heads of the eight RTCs in the region (China, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Malaysia), Asia/Pacific Vice-Chair Office of Indonesia Customs, representatives from the WCO Secretariat and the ROCB A/P participated in the meeting, as well as observers from Iran Customs, Thailand Customs and the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Asia and the Pacific (RILO AP).
During the Opening Session, Mr. Norikazu Kuramoto, the Head of the ROCB A/P expressed his highest gratitude to the RTCs for their continuous support to the regional capacity building activities and active contribution even during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also emphasized the importance of RTCs as pillars of the regionalization policy in the WCO capacity building while highlighting the significant contribution from the A/P region to the WCO.
The WCO introduced the recent measures taken by the WCO for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, while highlighting the importance of collaboration and cooperation with other organizations. The WCO also explained the core components and purpose of the Environmental Scan 2021-2024, which will be a basis of the Strategic Plan 2022-2025 as well as the new meeting arrangement of “Hybrid Meetings” and the basic condition to conduct in-country mission. Subsequently the A/P Vice-Chair Office provided recent updates on its policy and initiatives, followed by the ROCB AP report on the capacity building activities delivered in 2020-2021.
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. Furthermore, the RTCs shared experience/practice and challenges as well as provided their recent initiatives to efficiently deliver distance trainings. They agreed that it is important to expand and deepen cooperation among the region as well as the WCO and the ROCB A/P, particularly during challenging times.
Dr. Taeil Kang, Director Capacity Building of the WCO, presented the recent development on BACUDA Project and VR Training such as Data Analytics Framework, development of online training courses at CLiKC! on data analytics or 5 months Scholarship Program in Korea. He highlighted the importance for Customs officers to obtain basic knowledge and literacy on data analytics to respond to rapidly changing international trade environment.
For more information, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.