18-19 May 2022, Bali Indonesia

The WCO A/P 23rd Regional Heads of Customs Administrative Conference (RHCA) was held by hybrid format from 18 to 19 May 2022 in Bali, Indonesia hosted by the Customs and Excise of the Republic of Indonesia as Regional Vice Chair. Mr. Norikazu Kuramoto, Head of the ROCB A/P attend.

More than 60 delegates including in person participants from 18 Member administrations in Asia Pacific region and from the WCO, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, Secretary General, Regional Development Manager, the RILO A/P and the ROCB A/P, as permanent observers, attended the conference.

Dr. Kunio Mikuriya Secretary General congratulated the Vice Chair and participants on the face-to-face/hybrid RHCA conference first and stressed that we are in a critical phase of recovery from the COVID-19 disaster and necessity of promoting digitalization and the utilizing of advance information to address E-Commerce in order to support supply chain resilience. He also explained that the next Strategic Plan will focus on Digitalization, Green Customs (environment) and Governance.

Mr. Norikazu Kuramoto, Head of the ROCB A/P, updated its capacity building activities including the efforts response to the virtual workshops and as well as activities to enhance communication and information sharing among AP Members during COVID-19 time. Mr. Kuramoto also made reports on the implementation of the Focus Area 3 (Capacity Building) of the A/P RSP 2020-2022 on behalf of co-coordinators with Japan Customs.

During the conference, Vice Chair, RILO A/P and several Member Customs shared their recent activities and developments namely Maldives, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, China, and Cambodia. In addition to that, RSP 2022-24 for the AP region was endorsed. It was agreed that Australia will take over as the next Vice Chair for Asia Pacific. Transferring the RILO A/P to Japan and the application for Regional Training Center (RTC) Thailand was also endorsed. In addition, the MOU with WCO for RTC Iran was signed and it officially became an RTC.

For more information, please write to us at rocb@rocbap.org