“Partnership in Customs Academic Research and Development”

The 6th annual PICARD Conference was held from 14 to 16 September 2011 at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
Conference Summary
A key aim of the annual PICARD Conferences, held since 2006, is to promote high level exchanges on Customs education and professionalism and to encourage more academic research into topics relevant to Customs.
PICARD Conferences are jointly organized by the WCO and INCU, and this year the conference was co-hosted by Cross-border Research Association (CBRA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
The 2011 PICARD Conference focused on the following four topics and themes:
- Coordinated border management – The scope of this topic included the coordination of different regulatory authorities responsible for import, export, transit and other aspects of global trade within a national customs territory, and also cooperation among customs administrations internationally, including cooperation in relation to risk management, trade facilitation, e-customs / e-border management, and the like;
- Performance measurement of customs – This topic included the identification of methods to measure and benchmark Customs performance. It took a holistic approach to performance measurement, including integration between the performance of regulatory agencies and other elements of supply chain performance;
- Economic security and poverty reduction – For many developing countries in particular, the revenues collected by Customs represent an important portion of their total national income. The scope of this topic included the relative dependence on customs revenues of economies, and potential responses to declining revenue collection caused by, for example, the global financial crisis and a general reduction in duty rates. Such responses may include the use of effective tools and other capacity building solutions;
- Integrity Integrity is a prerequisite for effective Customs administration – This topic addressed ways in which integrity may be actively promoted by the WCO and its Members in partnership with the private sector and other interested stakeholders.
In examining and analysing these issues, conference participants were encouraged to identify a range of solutions to address identified concerns, with a particular emphasis on capacity building, improving performance and research opportunities for addressing the identified needs.
A key aim of the conference was to provide a truly global representation of the issues.
Conference Presentations
The following presentations were delivered at the conference:
TITLE | SPEAKER(S) | |
Opening Remarks | Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, WCO Secretary General | EN |
Update on WCO Capacity Building Initiatives | Mr. Erich Kieck, WCO Director, Capacity Building | EN FR |
WCO PICARD Programme An Overview | Ms. Heike Barczyk, WCO Deputy Director, Capacity Building | EN FR |
PICARD Programme Initiatives, Americas and Caribbean Region | Prof. Jhon Fonseca, Universidad de Costa Rica | EN |
PICARD Programme Initiatives, Middle East and Africa Region | Mr. Stephane Lauwick, University of Le Havre | EN |
PICARD Programme Initiatives, Asia-Pacific Region | Mr. Mikhail Kashubsky, University of Canberra | EN |
WCO Framework of Principles and Practices for Customs Career Path and Development | Ms. Bénédicte Meille, WCO HR Development Coordinator | EN FR |
The role of the UNECE legal instruments for border crossing facilitation | Mrs. Eva Molnar, Director of UNECE Transport Division | EN |
Empirical research informing Customs decision making | Prof. David Widdowson, INCU | EN FR |
INCU Updates | Mr. Mikhail Kashubsky, INCU Secretariat | EN |
Role of International Conventions, Sub-regional and bilateral cross-border transport agreements in promoting Coordinated Border Management – Experience of ESCAP countries | Mr. Sandeep Raj Jain, UN ESCAP, Thailand | EN |
Coordinated Border Management : From Theory to Practice | Ms. Mariya Polner, WCO Research Unit | EN FR |
Cross Border Regulatory Controls without Boundaries | Mr. Anders Hellberg, Swedish Customs | EN FR |
Extended logistical factors for success in international trade | Prof. Dr. Franz Vallée & Mr. Michael Dircksen, University of Applied Science, Münster, Germany | EN FR |
Developing of Performance Measurement for Russian Customs Service | Prof. Alexey Gubin, Russian Customs Academy | EN FR |
Performance measurement : The experience of French Customs | Mr. Xavier Pascual, Management Control Unit, General Directorate of Customs and Excise, France | EN FR |
Serving Trade and Security | Mr. Robert Lüssi, Vice-Director and Head of Main Division, Swiss Federal Customs Administration | EN FR |
Risk Management and Trade Facilitation | Mr. John Broadhurst, Vice President of Cotecna Inspection | EN |
Developing the case for trade facilitation in practice | Dr. Andrew Grainger, Nottingham University Business School, UK | EN FR |
Reversing the trend: Low cost and low risk methods for assuring proper duty payments | Mr. Holm Kappler, Meeks, Sheppard, Leo & Pillsbury, USA | EN FR |
Integrity signals end to roller coaster ride a Customs + Trade partnership approach to corruption | Mr. Ashok Sadhwani, Asmara U.S.A. Inc., Los Angeles, US, and Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand | EN FR |
Academe-industry partnership : an impetus in strengthening teaching and research of Customs administration in the Philippine higher educational institutions | Mr. Samuel Bautista, AIR 21 Academy of Developmental Logistics, Philippines | EN FR |
Risk Management Golden Rules & Learning Curve | Mr. Didier Reymond, (Executive Vice President, Cotecna Inspection) | EN |
Development in Performance Measurement of Customs Enforcement Management | Ms. Simone NDiaye-van den Berg (Dutch Customs) | EN FR |
Current Activities and Initiatives on Curriculum Development, Research and Capacity Building in Macedonian Customs Higher Education | Dr. Jovanka Biljan (University of St. Kliment Ohridski-Bitola, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) | EN |
WCO Research Activities | Mr. Tadashi Yasui (WCO Research Unit) | EN |
Improving Security Through Visibility in International Transports | Mr. Rainer Mueller (ISL, Germany) | EN |
Download All PICARD 2011 Conference Presentations ! (Members-only resource)