14-18 April 024, Sydney, Australia

The WCO A/P 25th Regional Heads of Customs Administrative Conference (RHCA) was held in Sydney, Australia from 14 to 18 April 2024 hosted by the Australia Border Force as the Asia/Pacific Regional Vice Chair. Mr. Norikazu Kuramoto, the Head of the ROCB A/P together with Mr. Jun Tajima, Ms. Zhengqing Ye and Mr. Jaemin Cho, the Program Managers of the ROCB A/P attended this conference.

At the opening ceremony, Mr. Michael Outram, the Vice-Chair of Asia/Pacific warmly welcomed participants in person in Sydney and welcomed Palau as the region’s newest WCO Member. Mr. Ian Sanders, the WCO Secretary General appreciated the leading role that Australia Border Force had been playing as the Vice-Chair of Asia/Pacific for the last 2 years. Moreover, he highlighted the WCO’s recent key activities, including updates on the progress made in the implementation of the Organization’s Strategic Plan 2022/2025. During the meeting, the WCO Secretary General Sanders explained details related to the advancements in the development of the WCO's modernization plan.

Mr. Norikazu Kuramoto, the Head of the ROCB A/P, updated the capacity building activities in the Asia/Pacific region including workshop achievement in this FY, Annual work plan for the next FY, cooperation with regional entities and its publication. Mr. Jaemin Cho made a report on the implementation of the Focus Area 3 (Capacity Building) of the Asia/Pacific Regional Strategic Plan 2022-2024. Additionally, RHCA confirmed Mr. Jun Tajima as the next ROCB A/P Head. During the 4-day event, the ROCB A/P had valuable opportunities to discuss with the Heads of AP Members regarding the customs capacity building in AP region. Our office received many positive feedback which offered a greater insight into the future improvement for ROCB A/P to guarantee long term sustainable delivery of capacity Building for Members.

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