World Customs scribe urges review of working method
Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO) Mr. Kunio Mikuriya has called on the Directors General of the World Customs Organization (WCO) for West and Central African region to review her working method by coming out of its logic of working in isolation and unilateral action
The World Customs boss gave the charge while delivering his speech at the 20th conference of the Directors General of Customs of West and Central Africa yesterday in Abuja which drew attendance from heads of customs from 23 countries.
Mr Kunio said: “There is the need to strengthen communication, cooperation and partnership for a coordinated border management by exploring opportunities to offset the governance deficit of the borders of member countries”
He said in the past, customs was made to give priority to the fiscal mission of customs to the detriment of others.
According to Kunio: “The implementation of WTO agreement on trade facilitation, the upsurge of insecurity at our borders and the occurrences of health crises oblige us to refocus on all our mission, while reviewing our working methods by coming out of the logic of isolation and unilateral action.”
He noted that this will help to optimize its operational capacities though the pooling of resources.
The Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi OkonjoIweala who delivered the key note address said: “The free movement of people, goods and services is essential for sustaining high level of trade and regional integration.”
She said the merit of these include the formation of a wider market and therefore economics of scale, greater competitiveness and resilience of external shocks as well as the creation of jobs and income generation.
Dr Ngozi emphasized
that regional integration helps to drive economic development by supporting the emergence of regional growth poles and income convergence.
The Minister said: “However, we must redouble our effort to effectively combat the new double menace of insecurity, insurgency and disease. I believe that as a region, we should see greater automation and streamlining of our processes for greater efficiency.”
She said other regions of the world have perfected the cutting edge risk identification and risk management methods with impressive results and the conference to engage the private sector who she described as both stakeholders and beneficiary in the process.