At the invitation of the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office (RILO) Asia/Pacific (A/P), the CCLEC JIO attended the ceremony held in Seoul, Korea on 6 2017 to mark the 30th Anniversary of the first RILO and the birth of the global RILO network. The JIO was one of 10 RILO’s to attend this ceremony.
The WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya was present for this ceremony.
Following the welcome address by the Korea Customs Service Commissioner, Mr. Yung-Moon Kim, Secretary General Mikuriya delivered a congratulatory speech expressing his sincere appreciation to the past four host Administrations of the RILO A/P for their services, namely Hong Kong, China (1987-1998), Japan (1999-2003), China (2004-2011) and Korea (2012- present). He recognised the gradual evolution of the RILO A/P nurtured by the four Administrations: (i) foundation (Hong Kong, China); (ii) capacity building (Japan); (iii) operations (China); (iv) and networking (Korea) with all 33 WCO A/P
Members having joined the RILO network, inter-regional cooperation with the other RILOs during enforcement operations, as well as collaboration with other international organisations and business. Dr. Mikuriya underlined the key contribution of the RILO network in collecting and analysing data, and sharing information with the global Customs community, which is faced with emerging challenges including e-commerce, security and illicit financial flows. All other WCO regions have followed the example of the A/P region in establishing their own RILOs.
Mr. Visvanath Das, Director General of the Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority (FRCA) and WCO Vice -Chair for the A/P region, and the Customs representatives from Hong Kong China, Japan and China in their capacity as former host Administrations also expressed their congratulations, and renewed their commitment to supporting Customs cooperation through the RILO network.
Representatives of Member Customs administrations of the A/P region, 10 RILOs covering the WCO’s six regions. In addition there were participants from global customs community ( Haiti and Mexico attended from the region) and international organisations attended the celebration, and they all appreciated Korea Customs Service’s warm hospitality.
