World Customs chief lauds Kuwait’s customs administration
The Ambassador of Kuwait to Belgium, Jasem Albudaiwi, met the Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Kunio Mikuriya, Thursday evening and presented him two international convention documents to boost cooperation with the WCO.
The two documents are the Instruments of accession of Kuwait to the International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures (Revised Kyoto Convention-RKC) and to the Convention on Temporary Admission (Istanbul Convention). “Today Kuwait accedes to the Kyoto and Istanbul conventions. It is a very good message to the world that Kuwait is a place for business and the customs procedure (in Kuwait) is very up to date,” Mikuriya said after the meeting. “I congratulate Kuwait customs and we can work further to share and implement the global standards and make sure that the Kuwait’s economy is well integrated into the global trading system,” he said. “Kuwait has been a very important member for the World Custom Organization. Kuwait has been very modern, very democratic and very transparent,” emphasized the head of the WCO.
“We are very keen to work with the Kuwait customs to share best practices from all over the world and encourage them to be more competitive than already a very good customs administration,” he added. With the accessions of Kuwait, the RKC Convention now has 109 Contracting Parties, and the Istanbul Convention, 69 Contracting Parties.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Jasem Al-Budaiwi said that the deposit of these documents confirms the importance attached by the State of Kuwait to the work of this Organization and Kuwait’s desire to cooperate with the international community in regulating customs work to safeguard the interests of States and ensure their security. He noted that Kuwait is an active member of the World Customs Organization and participates regularly in the meetings held by the Organization and coordinates with Member States on all issues and issues of common interest.
The Kuwaiti Ambassador affirmed that he discussed with the Secretary-General of the WCO ways to enhance relations between the two sides, including considering the possibility of holding workshops dedicated to the employees of the concerned authorities in the State of Kuwait in order to familiarize them with what has been achieved and reached internationally in the field of Customs administration at the administrative and practical levels, and the findings of current customs regulations, structuring and customs institutions at the international level.
Created in 1952 the Brussels-based WCO is an inter-governmental organization with 181 Members, who are responsible for managing more than 98 percent of world trade. Kuwait became a member in 1993. Mikuriya has been Secretary General of the WCO since on January 1, 2009. Prior to joining the WCO, he worked for Japan’s Ministry of Finance for 25 years. — KUNA