At the invitation of Mr. Bishar A. Hussein, UPU Director General, WCO Deputy Secretary General Sergio Mujica attended the 2016 UPU Ministerial Conference held in Istanbul, Turkey, on 4 October 2016. The Conference was organized during the UPU 26th Congress, held from 20 September to 7 October, gathering 2000 representatives from 155 countries to set the course of UPU’s work for the next four years. The Ministerial Conference was attended by Ministers and other senior decision-makers, regional bodies and international organizations, who discussed how Posts can better serve their nations and citizens, help grow the economy and drive development. The theme of the Conference was “Delivering Sustainable Development: Connecting Citizens, Businesses and Territories”.
The Ministerial Conference was opened by Mr. Bishar A. Hussein, UPU Director General, who highlighted the key role of the postal services in fostering economic development, with its unique “capacity to knock on the door of over 7 billion citizens around the world”. Mr. Hussein also referred to the need of the postal service to further enhance its IT capabilities in order to respond to the new needs of the global economy and the challenges and opportunities that the 21st century brings. In this regards, UPU Director General specifically mentioned that cooperation with the WCO is key to supporting the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
Deputy Secretary General Mujica participated in a high level Panel, along with the Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications of Turkey, the Deputy Minister of Communications and Multimedia of Malaysia, and the Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union. In his intervention, Mr. Mujica presented the main WCO instruments and tool designed to support Customs in enhancing economic competitiveness and security. He also described the key initiatives the WCO is taking to support e-commerce, including the WCO Working Group on E-Commerce, recently established to address key Customs-related topics such as trade facilitation, security and revenue collection. Finally, the WCO Deputy Secretary General presented the main areas in which the WCO and UPU are cooperating, including the recent joint letter sent by WCO Secretary General and UPU Director General in July 2016, urging Posts and Customs to develop mechanisms to exchange advance electronic data for effective risk assessment and efficient clearance and service delivery.