The 6th annual PICARD Conference will take place from 14 to 16 September 2011 at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
A key aim of the annual PICARD Conferences, held since 2006, is to promote high level exchanges on Customs education and professionalism and to encourage more academic research into topics relevant to Customs.
PICARD Conferences are jointly organized by the WCO and INCU, and this year the conference is being co-hosted by Cross-border Research Association (CBRA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
As a platform for reference Customs Research, the 2011 PICARD Conference will focus on the following four topics and themes:
· Coordinated border management – The scope of this topic will include the coordination of different regulatory authorities responsible for import, export, transit and other aspects of global trade within a national customs territory, and also cooperation among customs administrations internationally, including cooperation in relation to risk management, trade facilitation, e-customs / e-border management, and the like;
· Performance measurement of customs – This topic will include the identification of methods to measure and benchmark Customs
performance. It will take a holistic approach to performance measurement, including integration between the performance of regulatory agencies and other elements of supply chain performance;
· Economic security and poverty reduction — For many developing countries in particular, the revenues collected by Customs represent an important portion of their total national income. The scope of this topic will include the relative dependence on customs revenues of economies, and potential responses to declining revenue collection caused by, for example, the global financial crisis and a general reduction in duty rates. Such responses may include the use of effective tools and other capacity building solutions;
· Integrity – Integrity is a prerequisite for effective Customs administration. This topic will address ways in which integrity may be actively promoted by the WCO and its Members in partnership with the private sector and other interested stakeholders.
In examining and analysing these issues, conference participants are encouraged to identify a range of solutions to address identified concerns, with a particular emphasis on capacity building, improving performance and research opportunities for addressing the identified needs.
A key aim of the conference is to provide a truly global representation of the issues, and, consequently, it aims to include presentations that represent diverse geographic viewpoints.
For further information and registration please visit the official conference website.
WCO Invitation: English French
Online Registration — Now Open!