on Effective Solutions for Coordinated Border Management 

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

16 May 2013

The World Customs Organization (WCO), with Dubai Customs as co-host, organized the WCO IT Conference & Exhibition with the theme “Effective Solutions for Coordinated Border Management,” in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from 14 to 16 May 2013.

The conference explored the ways that modern information technology (IT) can transform the government approach to border management through greater collaboration and cooperation.

Better Coordinated Border Management (CBM) implies that a large number of agencies involved in border security and regulatory requirements must find new ways to work effectively in order to enhance connectivity.  A CBM approach means that agencies must abandon silo thinking and present a unified and simpler face to the private sector and to citizens.  Cooperation and partnership with the private sector is equally essential in achieving better CBM.

The WCO has developed many instruments and tools related to modern best practice in  IT and provides technical assistance and capacity building programs to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of Customs administrations. To support better CBM, it arranged this event jointly with Dubai Customs to share experiences and best practice on implementing relevant WCO instruments and tools such as the WCO Data Model, the WCO Single Window Compendium and the concept of Globally Networked Customs amongst customs administrations, other governmental agencies and the private sector.

The Meeting conveyed the following messages and recommendations:

• CBM can help improve the efficiency of the supply chain to address both trade facilitation and security issues and to contribute to the economic competiveness of countries.
• CBM is a concept with domestic and international components.  Each is important and they are complementary.  Modern IT can make both of them more effective in tandem with an appropriate legal base.
• Developing trust amongst government agencies and between government agencies and the private sector is paramount. They need to better communicate, cooperate, coordinate and collaborate. This requires strong political leadership.
• Agencies must respect each other’s respective policy mandates, objectives and obligations when making arrangements for collaborative risk management and control measures.
• Border agencies must address their respective tasks collaboratively with streamlined procedures and avoiding unnecessary duplication.
• The application of technology should be based on simplified and harmonized procedures, for example as embodied in the Revised Kyoto Convention and the SAFE Framework of Standards.
• Technology is an enabler for responding to the above recommendations, however, it is only a tool and the human factor needs to be addressed through collaboration between border agencies at both policy and operational levels.
• Adopting innovative technology to improve border management must go hand in hand with process re-engineering and an appropriate Human Resource Development strategy to make it sustainable.
• Single Window enables the sharing of information, it facilitates trade, reduces costs and mitigates risks at the borders. The WCO Data Model provides the standardized data and message set that meets the procedural and legal requirements of cross-border regulatory agencies.
• Customs plays a central role at the border and can provide its IT services to other border agencies, or interwork with their appplications.
• By working more closely with the private sector, more data quality and better compliance can be ensured to achieve further trade facilitation.
• International organizations need to join forces and work together in order to improve cooperation and complementarities of IT instruments that relate to border functions at national and international levels.