VCN- The 32nd session of the ASEAN Customs Capacity Building Working Group (CCBWG) ended successfully after three working days from 14 to 16 March 2023. The ten Customs administrations of ASEAN Member States (AMS) and the ASEAN Secretariat attended the meeting chaired by Mr Oentarto Wibowo, Director of Indonesian Customs and Excise Education and Training Center.
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| ASEAN Secretariat and Customs representatives of the AMS attended the 32nd CCBWG Meeting. |
The CCBWG was updated with the progress of activities within the Strategic Plan of Customs Development (SPCD) under the Customs capacity building working group. The delegates discussed the draft guidelines and frameworks of ASEAN Customs to support Customs reform and modernisation, human resource development and administration, narrowing the development gaps in Customs, and knowledge management. The group also consulted with ASEAN dialogue partners (Australia, Japan, Korea and China) on issues related to training, human resource development and identifying tentative priorities for technical assistance from the dialogue partners.
The CCBWG endorsed the ASEAN Customs Integrity Framework. The purpose of this Framework was to enable a comparison of the common customs integrity elements implemented across the AMS Customs. In turn, it can promote transparency, increase the perception of integrity among Customs officers, encourage service quality improvement, recognise best practices and assist the development of training materials on integrity for Customs officers.
Regarding ASEAN Customs Modernization Gap Matrix, Vietnam Customs shared the gaps that Vietnam Customs has been striving to achieve in the Customs Development Strategy until 2030, such as reducing Customs time release or having 100% licenses issued on the National Single Window environment. Based on information shared by Customs Administrations of AMS, Brunei Darussalam could identify, analyse and develop a gap analysis paper with recommendations to address the gaps.
Regarding the issue of performance management, the Working Group discussed the draft Guidelines of ASEAN Customs Performance Management focusing on people management. Vietnam Customs shared the practice of its performance measurement mechanism as an annual activity aiming at assessing the performance of all areas of Customs competencies, including duties collection, trade facilitation, Customs control and capacity building. It was suggested that the AMS would consider and utilise the comprehensive Performance Measurement Mechanism (PMM) developed by the World Customs Organization (WCO), which includes Key performance indicators, both quantitative and qualitative.
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The delegation of Vietnam Customs participated in the CCBWG meeting. |
At this meeting, the working group also endorsed the Guidelines for the ASEAN Customs Regional Experts Selection process, which covered experts in Customs, logistics and trade areas. Members believed the Guidelines would be a standard reference for AMS in nominating regional experts based on their domestic resources.
Vietnam and other AMS provided updates on the list of ASEAN Customs accredited experts by the WCO. Currently, Vietnam Customs has four WCO accredited experts in Diagnostic Framework for Capacity Building, Intellectual Property right, Authorized Economic Operators (AEO) and Strategic Trade Control Enforcement.
Australian Border Force (ABF) and Vietnam Customs updated the CCBWG on the preparation for the sixth Joint Customs Middle Management Programme. This activity will be held in November 2023 at Vietnam Customs School with the participation of the AMS middle Customs managers and the two dialogue partners, ABF and Japan Customs. In addition, ABF representatives announced they would coordinate with a University to develop a training curriculum focusing on best practices in leadership and human resource management and provide instructors for this programme.
The 33rd CCBWG Session will be held in Indonesia in September 2023.
By Khanh Hong – Customs Reform & Modernization Board