BRUSSELS: Director-general of the General Administration of Customs Abdullah Al-Sharhan, on Saturday called for exerting more efforts to face the transformations and challenges in the international trade environment. This came in a speech delivered by Sharhan during his participation in the meetings of the council of the World Customs Organization, which concluded its work today at the headquarters of the organization in the Belgian capital Brussels.

Sharhan stressed the need to keep abreast of the accelerated new updates in technological systems and programs, electronic commerce and data digitization that the customs administrations. He also urged exchanging intelligence information and participating in joint operations through the customs network to combat illegal practices "that negatively affects the security and facilitation of trade". Sharhan highlighted the need to strengthen the capabilities of customs officials and identify new methods of smuggling.

He pointed to Kuwait's membership in the audit and review committee, which is one of the main committees in the organization, explaining that the membership consists of two countries from each of the six regions and its tasks are to provide objective and independent advice and recommendations to the secretary-general, the policy committee and the council and works to review the annual plans and monitor the comprehensive implementation of the strategic plan to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.

During the meetings, Sharhan reviewed the priorities of the General Administration of Customs in Kuwait, including the qualification of employees, providing all necessary means to build their capabilities, providing technical assistance to enable them to develop customs work, achieve security and facilitation in trade, providing opportunities for them to occupy positions in the organization, representation on committees and raising the professional level to achieve the goals set in the strategic plan.

During the regional meeting for the Middle East and North Africa, Sharhan stressed the importance of the agreement of the countries of the region on the mechanism of financing the translation of the work of the OIC committees in Arabic to ensure the empowerment and activation of the participation of customs administration officials in the Arab countries, pointing out that the terms of Reference Document for the appointment of technical attaches to the countries of the region was also adopted after the inclusion of Kuwait's observations.

The 141st and 142nd meeting of the Council of the World Customs Organization (WCO) and the 58th regional meeting for the Middle East and North Africa, which began its work on June 21, concluded Saturday, during which the reports of the WCO budget 2023/24 and its finance committee were adopted. The delegation of the State of Kuwait at the meetings was headed by Sharhan. – KUNA