The 25th WCO Asia/Pacific Regional Contact Points Meeting was held from 17 to 19 November 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The meeting was opened by Dato’ Sri Khazali Ahmad, Director General of the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) and Vice-Chair for the Asia/Pacific region, and was chaired by Ms. Nor Haziah Abd. Wahab, Acting Director of Customs, Corporate Planning Division of RMCD. Delegates from 33 Members in the Asia/Pacific region, representatives from the WCO Secretariat, Asia/Pacific Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB A/P), Asia/Pacific Regional Intelligence Liaison Office (RILO A/P) participated in the meeting to steer discussion on the issues of common interest of the region and to formulate recommendations to the heads meeting in coming spring.
In his opening remarks, Dato’ Sri Khazali expressed his appreciation for the consistent support and cooperarion given by the Members in the region as well as by regional entities, and highlighted some good examples of regional cooperation and initiatives that demonstrated solidality of the Members of the region. By referring to key agenda items of the Meeting, he emphasised the need of prioritising the region’s interests in making decisions, and wished for a stimulating and fruitful discussion.
The meeting reviewed the activities that were delivered to date under the Regional Strategic Plan 2014-2016 to confirm effective implementation of the Regional Strategic Plan. It also examined various operational activities for which Members took initiatives, and discussed the way forward on how these activities are best proceeded in furthering regional strategies. Other issues of key importance such as WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, private sector engagement, governance mechanism for the years to come including a new Regional Strategic Plan 2016-2018 were also discussed. Participants were benefited from updates of the WCO Secretariate on the WCO policy and initiatives which would have significant impact on activities of the region and Members, as well as from active reports of the ROCB A/P and the RILO A/P, all of which contrinuted to the lively exchange of views on the aforementioned items.