The Office of Supply Chain Security Management (OSCS) of the Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) has been endeavouring to promote the Hong Kong Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) Programme, including the development of mutual recognition arrangement (MRA) with Hong Kong’s principal trading partners and economies along the Belt and Road. Among which, we have been maintaining close relationship with the ASEAN economies, which rank 2nd as Hong Kong’s major trading partner after the Mainland of China. Since 2012, C&ED has concluded MRAs with the Customs authorities in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, and is currently working on the MRA development with Indonesia and Vietnam.
With various epidemic prevention measures in place, we have to use innovative thinking in order to move forward the AEO MRA. To this end, OSCS officers have been engaging in close dialogues with the Indonesian authority in order to map out feasible ways to advance the MRA development, such as conducting bilateral meeting and joint validation visit in a hybrid mode. Furthermore, OSCS reached out to the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (INACHAMHK) on 29 April 2021 to seek closer cooperation with them through the HKAEO Programme, so as to accelerate the development of the AEO MRA between Indonesia and Hong Kong as well as promote the trade development between the two places in the long run.
