On 26 August, the Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, gave a special lecture to WCO scholars at the Aoyama Gakuin University (AGU) in Tokyo, Japan. Nineteen scholars of the Japan-WCO Scholarship Programme who are following the Master’s Degree Programme in Public Finance at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) or in Strategic Management and Intellectual Property Rights at the AGU, attended the lecture.

The Secretary General introduced the WCO’s topical areas of work, including Data Strategy, disruptive technologies, Green Customs, Customs role during Public Health emergencies, fragile borders, and geospatial intelligence. He also touched upon the importance of Governance and delved into the strategies to assist the 184 WCO Members in adopting and implementing WCO tools and instruments, broadening the Customs-to-Customs network, and enhancing national border agency cooperation through the Coordinated Border Management concept.

During the interactive questions and answers session, Dr. Mikuriya made references to the situation in the scholars’ own countries, while outlining the WCO Secretrariat’s contribution to supporting Members and raising the profile of Customs. He also shared some insights into the future areas of work of the WCO. The lecture offered a good opportunity for the scholars to gain updated knowledge on WCO’s activities and to ascertain their individual role in supporting Customs reform and modernization efforts in their respective administrations.