17-21 October 2022, Perth, Australia

     The WCO Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on Digital Forensics was held from 17 to 21 October 2022 in Perth, Australia, under the sponsorship of the Japan Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF/Japan). The Workshop was organized with the support of the ROCB A/P as well as with generous support from the Australian Border Force (ABF). A total of 16 participants representing 16 Customs administrations in the AP region attended the Workshop and discussed topics related to digital forensics. Together with the WCO Accredited Customs Expert (ACE) and the resource person from Japan Customs, Mr. Norikazu Kuramoto, Head, and Ms. Yuko Mamiya, Program Manager of the ROCB A/P also attended the workshop as facilitators/coordinators.

     Together with the WCO Asia-Pacific Regional Vice-Chair, WCO experts and donor, Mr. Kuramoto also opened the Workshop and warmly welcomed the speakers and participants. In his opening remarks, he emphasized the importance of digital forensics in the Customs context. Furthermore, he introduced ROCB A/P’s capacity building activities such as organizing workshops and publishing various materials for information sharing. He demonstrated a commitment to assisting AP Members in building their capacity.

     During the Workshop, the participants actively shared their experiences and challenges in utilizing digital forensics. In particular, the ABF actively contributed to the workshop by sharing their techniques for extracting the data, ensuring the integrity of data and utilizing various tools. Ms. Yuko Mamiya facilitated the workshop and explained the background and objectives of this workshop by emphasizing the importance of individual commitment for the organizational development of Customs administrations. She also explained the Follow-up Actions Survey, which aims to take a snapshot of the impact of WCO capacity building activities on AP Members’ performance, and encouraged the participants to take action to utilize lessons learnt from this workshop.

     The Workshop was successfully concluded with participants’ positive feedback. The participants expressed their appreciation to the WCO, the ROCB A/P, the WCO ACE, Japan Customs and the ABF for their contribution to the workshop.

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