3 – 5 May 2022, Seoul Korea hosted by ROCB A/P

The WCO Asia/Pacific Regional Railway Workshop was held from 3 to 5 May 2022 in Seoul, Korea by a hybrid format allowing for remote and on-site participation. The Workshop was the first hybrid regional workshop in AP region, hosted by the ROCB A/P in close cooperation with the WCO under the sponsorship of the Korea Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF/Korea). 

27 participants (on-site 16, online 11) from 14 Customs administrations in the Asia and Pacific region attended the Workshop. Together with the Railway experts from the WCO, Mr. Ilkwon HAN, Program Manager of the ROCB A/P attended as facilitators/coordinators for the Workshop and Ms. Pavida Tarapoom (May), Assistant Program Manager also participated from the ROCB A/P.  In addition, 5 international organizations (IOs), namely OTIF, UPU, CIT, CER and UIC, shared their experiences related to Customs procedures for railway transportation at the workshop.

WCO has started the Railway Project in 2019 to harmonize and facilitate the Railway transportation with the support from CCF-Korea. And the WCO Railway Guidance will be published in June 2022.  Furthermore, Capacity Building activities will be undertaken for Six regional railway workshop by starting this workshop in the Asia Pacific Region. In this regard this workshop is crucial to share the experience of Railway transportation from the AP members.

During the workshop, Experiences from 5 AP members, namely Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Pakistan, Vietnam, were shared through the country presentations and the participants actively participated in the discussion for benchmark and harmonization.

In addition, the onsite participants had two times of on-site tour at the RDTC (Regional Dog Training Center) Korea and the Express Cargo Clearance Center in Incheon Main Customs to understand the importance of canine function and e-commerce.

The active contribution of the participants resulted in a successful workshop and this workshop supported enhancing communication and information sharing among Member administrations even in the pandemic situation. The participants expressed their appreciation to the Korea Customs Service, the WCO, the ROCB A/P and the Experts for their support to the workshop

For more information, please contact at rocb@rocbap.org.