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World Customs Day celebrated in Oceania
SUVA, Fiji—Customs administrations across the region and the world celebrated World Customs Day yesterday, which had the theme “Nurturing the next generation: promoting a culture of knowledge-sharing and professional pride in Customs.”
Here in the region, the Oceania Customs Organization also celebrated the graduation of 35 Customs officers from 15 countries with a Certificate IV in Customs Regional Administration from the Center for Customs and Excise Studies at Charles Sturt University in Canberra in partnership with the OCO.
“It is befitting that the graduation of our Customs officers, 17 of which are women is in the same week as the World Customs Day, which promotes knowledge sharing as well as professional pride in our work,” OCO operations manager Irma Daphney Stone said. “These graduates are now included in our pool of experts who can conduct training in their own countries or in the region.”
Last year, CCES and OCO offered the first ever accredited training for fundamental Customs functions with 49 officers from 17 OCO member countries graduating with a Certificate III in Regional Customs, which was taught over eight months.
“This is an important milestone for the region as these courses are benchmarked against world standards in Customs training and the qualification is also recognized within the region and globally,” Stone said.
The graduates are now skilled to train officers in their countries on border security, trade facilitation and revenue collection. (PR)
