“Partnership in Customs Academic Research and Development” – 14th Annual WCO PICARD Conference
The 14th annual WCO PICARD Conference was held from 22 to 24 October 2019 in Skopje, North Macedonia and was organised by the World Customs Organization (WCO) in partnership with Customs Administration of the Republic of North Macedonia.
Conference Summary
The conference welcomed some 240 participants from approximately 50 countries and saw more than 40 presentations by high-level speakers from academic, governmental, and private sector entities and think-tanks, which were selected from over 80 papers submitted in response to the Call for Papers.
The 2019 PICARD Conference topics included:
- Data Science: Policy Implications for Customs;
- Data Science for Fraud Detection;
- Data Analytics;
- Cross-border E-commerce;
- E-commerce and Customs Control;
- Coordinated Border Management;
- Special Economic Zones;
- Predominance of Protectionism and Performance Measurement in Trade;
- Technology and Risk Management at the Border;
- Digitalization: Helping to Modernize Customs Administrations
The conference kicked off with opening remarks by Mr. Zoran Zaev, Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, Mr. Gjoko Tanasoski, Director General of the Customs Administration of the Republic of North Macedonia, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, Secretary General of the WCO, and Dr. Anna Cho, Director General of the Customs Border Control Training Institute at the Korea Customs Service.
In his welcoming remarks, the Prime Minister, Mr. Zaev, stressed the importance of events such as the PICARD Conference to support the development of more effective policies to ensure an improved business environment and predicted digitalization to significantly reduce the costs of trade operations.
WCO Secretary General, Dr Mikuriya expressed his gratitude to the Government of North Macedonia and to the Director General of the Customs Administration of the Republic of North Macedonia and his team for hosting the PICARD Conference, and thanked the Korea Customs Service for supporting the participation of some of the speakers.
With this year’s Conference focusing on Big Data analytics and its potential use by Customs, cross-border e-commerce with its opportunities and challenges, and coordination and cooperation at borders based on connectivity, Dr. Mikuriya noted that “there is a need for cooperation between business and academia on Big Data supported by a dialogue with the global Customs community.” In his address, Dr. Mikuriya also outlined his reflections on how Customs, with its long-standing experience of a computerized approach to risk analysis, is a prime domain for the Big Data revolution.
As in previous years, the 2019 PICARD Conference was attended by a number of INCU members and affiliates from around the word who actively participated and delivered presentations, keynote addresses and led several panel discussions.
The following INCU members and/or representatives of INCU Institutional Members and Affiliates delivered presentations and speeches at the conference:
- Irena Kikerkova (University Ss. Cyril and Methodius)
- Gulu Novruzov (Academy of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan)
- Elvin Alirzayev (Academy of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan)
- Yuhao Cong (Shanghai Customs College)
- Xiang Gao (Shanghai Customs College)
- Xiangnan Guo (Shanghai Customs College)
- Vladimir Shamakhov (North-West Institute of Management)
- Sergei Chizhikov (North-West Institute of Management)
- Natalia Muyzinik (North-West Institute of Management)
- Renat Kuntishev (North-West Institute of Management)
- Jenia Peteva
- Alexandr Grebennikov
- Wieslaw Czyzowicz (Warsaw School of Economics)
- Konstantin Trubitsyn (Samara State Technical University)
- Christopher Dallimore (Aussenwirtschafts-Akademie GmbH)
- Andrea Szabó
- Johan Ponten (Cross-Border Research Association)
- Toni Mannisto (Cross-Border Research Association)
- Susana Wong Chan (University of Costa Rica)
- Katerina Toshevska- Trpchevska (University Ss. Cyril and Methodius)
- Frank Altemoeller (Hochschule Harz University of Applied Sciences)
- Momchil Antov (Tsenov Academy of Economics)
- Arvy Osma (Mariners’ Polytechnic Colleges)
- Mikhail Kashubsky (Centre for Customs and Excise Studies)
- Dominic McInnis
- Ashok Sadhwani
- Juha Hintsa (Cross-Border Research Association)
- Yao-Hua Tan (Delft University of Technology)
The three-day Conference also included a Youth Forum, enabling some 12 students from Azerbaijan, Belarus, North Macedonia, Poland, Russia and Uzbekistan to discuss topics pertaining to Customs, as well as future career possibilities in Customs and international trade arena.
At the closing, the participants joined the WCO in expressing their gratitude to the Customs Administration of North Macedonia for its outstanding hospitality and conveyed their satisfaction with the Conference’s outcomes, which provided ample food for thought and new networking opportunities.
Mrs. Velma Ricketts Walker, Commissioner of Jamaica Customs, took the opportunity to officially announce that Jamaica Customs would host the next PICARD Conference and would be pleased to welcome participants to Jamaica in 2020.
In the sidelines of the conference, the INCU held its 2019 Annual General Meeting, which was chaired by INCU Management Committee member Prof. Wes Czyzowicz and was attended by several INCU members and observers from the WCO and Customs administrations.
The 2019 PICARD Conference materials including presentations, speaker biographies and photos, are now available on the INCU website.
Conference Presentations
The following presentations were delivered at the conference:
| PRESENTATION TITLE | SPEAKER(S) | DOWNLOAD PDF |
| DAY 1 | ||
| Data Science: Policy Implications for Customs | Kunio Mikuriya | EN |
| Data Science for Fraud Detection: Open Source Tools and Approaches | Meeyoung Cha | |
| Machine Learning Approaches to Detect Underpricing in Customs Declarations | Muzhi Guan | EN |
| Detecting Evasion at the Container Level: The case of French-Madagascan shipments | Cyril Chalendard | EN |
| Information, Monitoring, and Tariff Evasion: Experimental Evidence from Madagascar | Alice Duhaut | EN |
| Cross-border E-Commerce in East and Southern Africa | Jean Luc Erero | EN |
| Analysisof Cross Border E-Commerce inthe Directorate Generalof Indonesian Customsand Excise | Wisnu Nugrahini | EN |
| Evaluation of E-Commerce Systems in Nigeria: Implementation and Challenges | Misbau Murtala | |
| DAY 2 | ||
| Establishing Risk and Targeting Profiles using the data mining method | Bassem Chermiti | |
| Monitoring Intra-Regional and Intra-Sector Trade | Christopher Grigoriou | EN |
| Assessing the Development, Risk and Opportunities of Cross Border E-Commerce in Developing Countries | Troy Thomas | EN |
| Implementation of WCO Cross-Border E-Commerce Framework of Standards in Sri Lanka | W.A.T. Perera | |
| H2020 PROFILE Project: Enhancing Customs Risk Management with Big Data and Data Analytics | Juha Hintsa | EN |
| Insights from the PROFILE EU Project onData Analytics | Yao-Hua Tan | EN |
| Boko Haram Crisis and Customs Security in The North-East Region of Nigeria: Latest Insights and Analytics | Etim Ibok | EN |
| Value Added Tax on Cross-Border E-Commerce: Challenges for Africa | Théodette Boyayo | EN |
| E-Commerce and Customs Control in EU Member States | Momchil Antov | EN |
| The Implementation of Cross Border E-Commerce in Indonesia and ASEAN Countries | Rita Dwi Lindawati and Wisnu Nugrahini | EN & EN |
| Data Governance and Knowledge Management in Customs for an Integrated Border Management | Jenia Peteva | EN |
| How helpful are Mirror Statistics for Customs Reform? | Gaël Raballand | EN |
| Descriptive and Predictive Analytics using Customs Data: Case of the Republic of North Macedonia | Jordan Simonov and Zoran Gligorov | EN |
| Customs in the age of Globalization and Regionalization: Azerbaijan and WTO Accession | Isa Allahverdiyev, Khayala Mirzayeva | |
| Customs digitalization as a key precondition for successful regional cooperation–issues in CEFTA 2006 | Ljuben Kocev | EN |
| Country of Origin as an Essential Element of Evasion of the Law (1) | Uladzislau Shpileuski and Tatsiana Prakopovich | |
| Penalties for non-compliance with Article 16.2 of the Code on Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation with regard to Goods Imported for Personal Use | Alexandr Pulin and Raisa Kuzmicheva | EN |
| Prospects for International Cooperation of the EAEU countries with a view to Developing Exports | Artem Mitioglo | EN |
| Big Data Analysis for Customs Purposes | Aleksandar Parishev and Viktor Stojkoski | EN |
| Cooperation Framework and Action Plan for Joint Customs-Police Activities in Research Education | Trevor Francis and Juha Hintsa | EN |
| Enhancing Coordinated Border Management by Implementing Risk based Inspection in Border Agencies | Tekleweyni Tadesse | EN |
| AEO Implementation and Guidelines for Secure Borders: the South American case | Sebastián Galindo-Cantor and Gloria Rodriguez-Lozanor | EN |
| Customs Digital Integration in CEFTA-2006 | Ljuben Kocev, Irena Kikerkova and Zlatko Veterovski | |
| Day 3 | ||
| Free Zones as a Risk Factor | Germán de Melo Ponce | EN |
| BalancingTrade Facilitation and Customs Control in Duty Free Zones/Special Customs Zones? | Nattha Wongsearam | EN |
| Borders and Protectionism: U.S. Trade Policy and its Impact on Economy and International Trade | Sara Armella | EN |
| Increased Protectionism by Implementation of Non-Trade Barriers in CEFTA-2006 | Irena Kikerkova | EN |
| Behavioural insights for safeguarding Customs integrity | Nandika Sanath Kumanayake | EN |
| Competitiveness in the Supply Chain of Logistics Providers in Naga City, Philippines | Arvy Noleal Osma | EN |
| Profiling Importers: Using Risk Management Techniques to Identify their Level of Risk | Emmanuel G Anton | |
| Transforming Supply Chain with Blockchain | Damla Esrefoglu | |
| Money Laundering Investigation by the Directorate General Of Customs And Excise of the Republic of Indonesia | Anton Suharyanto | EN |
| Coordination at borders with national committees on trade facilitation: space for inter-agency cooperation | Fabiano Coelho | EN |
| Tax Hike Influenced Smuggling of Beedi Wrapper Leaves (BWL) | W R P Wickramaratne |