“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 Documents

• Conference Agenda:  English   French
• Conference Report:  English

Conference Presentations

The following presentations were delivered at the conference:

TITLE	SPEAKER(S)	PDF
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 N’Diaye-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

Conference Photos