Representatives of 19 Customs administrations from the Asia Pacific Region gathered in Hong Kong from October 20 to 22 for the 21st Administrative Meeting of the National Contact Points of the World Customs Organization (WCO) Regional Intelligence Liaison Office (RILO) Asia Pacific.
Representatives from various international organisations, including RILO Commonwealth of Independent States, RILO Middle East, RILO Western Europe, the Oceania Customs Organisation and the United Nations Environment Programme also participated in the meeting.
Hosted by the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department, the three-day meeting covered regional enforcement issues such as action against drug trafficking, tobacco smuggling, environmental crimes and commercial fraud. The meeting also endorsed an action plan for regional co-operation to tackle the related crimes.
At the welcome reception, the Commissioner of Hong Kong Customs and Excise, Mr Richard Yuen, commended the accomplishments made by RILO Asia Pacific, highlighting the importance of Customs co-operation in combating transnational crimes.
RILO Asia Pacific is a body of the WCO Global RILO Network that gathers and analyses information on customs risks of high importance at regional level.
Ends/Thursday, October 22, 2009