Nurturing the Next Generation with knowledge sharing and professional pride in Customs

TEXT: Knowledge management is essential for development of culture of knowledge sharing and professional development. This year the WCO has focused on fostering of new generation of young customs officers with tools of knowledge sharing and instilling professional pride in them. How to train and develop young Customs officers so that they should have pride in service and how they should be motivated to accomplish necessary competencies by mastering the WCO tools and instrumentsessential for transforming Customs administrationinto a modern and progressive organization contributing towards economic development of a country is a real challenge.

In any organization big or small, private or public its growth and development, success and failure is dependent on its culture which is created through values, mission and goals an organization set for itself. Values may not be changeable yet the goal posts and mission statement might be changing with change in environment where an organization is operating. Leadership of any organization is responsible for setting up a direction to create a desirable culture and steering an organization to achieve its set goals through its mission. The WCO helps the Customs leadership throughout world through Leadership, Management and Development (LMD) program that how to bring desired change in the organization and how to steer reform programs for Customs modernization.

It won’t be wrong to say that the WCO is a knowledge based organization. It does not only provide leadership and guidance to Customs administrations which is based on the knowledge for which the WCO strives to create through an organized and structured activities, programs, research and operational analysis. The knowledge creation is embedded in the WCO’s structure how it works and how its various committees’ perform their functions. The committees such as Enforcement Committee, HS Committee and Permanent Technical Committee brings the pool of knowledgeable resources together in one place and provide them a pathway to create new knowledge and instruments for compliance and facilitation of trade which act as driver of economic growth and development. The collection of treatise of main WCO packages such as Revenue Package, Economic Competitiveness Package, Compliance and Enforcement Package and Organizational Development Package are the compendiums of knowledge creation put together by the WCO for the purpose of knowledge sharing to achieve the goals of Customs modernization.

In line with the dots painted by the WCO, Member countries should develop a culture of creating knowledge and knowledge sharing among its employees and sharing the same with other Member countries through the WCO Committees designed for the purpose. To achieve the goal, Customs administrations should take steps for creating a knowledge repository accessible to each of its employee for learning and applying the outcomes to day to day customs processes and operations. The requisite repository can be organized on the platform of WeBOC or at the plat form of Pakistan Single Window. The sections of Federal Board of Revenue such as International Customs, the Directorate of Reforms and automation and Pakistan Single Window can contribute to the Pakistan Customs Academy for transforming it into a center of knowledge repository and hub of knowledge sharing which is critical for fostering Customs professional development.

The knowledge based solution can provide the befitting solutions to most challenging problems being faced by Customs administrations including Pakistan. The soaring challenges being confronted by many similar developing courtiers such as how to handle the menace of smuggling, reduce time of clearance of goods across borders, increase level of compliance through use of compliance management continuum etc. can better be answered by the knowledge based repository where experience of other countries facing similar challenges are collected, analyzed and understood.

The WCO provides a huge knowledge resources for Customs administrations which can be tapped by Pakistan Customs and impart the sameto its next generation Customs employees through an structured syllabus and training programs. For the purpose, we need to promote culture of training and learning by incentivizing the acts of seeking knowledge and imparting knowledge. It is high time we invest resources in Pakistan Customs Academy so that culture of learning and trainings can be made attractive and trainers and trainee officers should eb instilled a sense of pride of having equipped with cutting edge knowledge of tools and instruments being used world over for Customs modernization.

Sanaullah Abro

Collector of Customs

Appraisement (West), Karachi

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023