In his opening speech at the two-day meeting, HE Ahmed Butti Ahmed, the Executive Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone and Director general of Dubai Customs underlined Dubai Custom's keenness on accelerating exchange of information and passing them to RILO ME in such a way that will ensure their interpretation and utilization in enforcement operations and tracking customs crimes at local, regional and international levels.
Mr. Butti stressed on the importance of this annual meeting and praised the strategic relationships between Dubai Customs and its strategic stakeholders in customs business.
"Dubai Customs regards such cooperation as part of its strategy towards promoting expertise and pacing with international obligations in force”, he said.
"It is great pride for us in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates to host this important meeting and to have the opportunity gained by Dubai Customs in its own name and on behalf of the other UAE Customs Administrations for taking part in the world efforts aiming at fighting illegitimate trade, controlling smuggling of prohibited and counterfeited products through air, sea and land ports” he added.
The WCO RILO ME played a major role in facilitating exchange of information relating to seizures violating customs rules and regulations namely, narcotics seizures, fake drugs, money laundering and commercial fraudulence assisting with foiling a huge number of these seizures at the country and region`s posts together with safeguarding the society members from the dangers of such products and protecting the national and regional economies from organized smuggling networks and international crime bands”, he pointed out.
From his part, Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz Al Araj, Director of RILO ME, in his speech during the opening session, thanked Dubai Customs for hosting the event "Exchange of information today has become essential in customs work due to increase in international trade and trans-shipments and because the Middle East region is fast growing” he said.
Ms. Agnieszka Butrym Bielatko, WCO representative, commended, in her speech, the RILO ME office’s efforts in exchange of information and combating all types of customs violations and said: "The RILO for Middle East is a highly respected office thanks to the continuous and outstanding commitment of its staff and Affiliated National Contact Points in the region. There is no doubt that RILO ME always is ready to support the initiatives undertaken by the other RILOs or the secretariat of the WCO”.
"The WCO Secretariat attaches great importance to the Global RILO Network and to its main tool, the Customs Enforecement Network aimed at collection, analysis and exchange of information on seizures carried out and offences detected by the customs services worldwide” she added.
Mr. Abdullah Al Shaer, Director of Customs Intelligence Department at Dubai Customs said “Dubai Customs is proud in hosting this meeting in which representatives of customs administrations and organizations are taking part including delegates from WCO, RILOs in Europe, Asia and Pacific and Africa,”
“Dubai Customs had the honor of establishing the first National Contact Point of RILO ME in 1998, which has been working hard to pass intelligence information on different seizures beyond UAE borders to RILO ME in Riyadh along with its role in learning and educating customs inspectors about the latest methods of smuggling and contributing to WCO joint operations for aborting bids of smuggling different prohibited and counterfeited products” Al Shaer added.
During the first day of the meeting, RILO ME National Contact Points have highlighted their most prominent achievements and plans for the current year including information about their joint operations.
The second day of the meeting will discuss advantages and benefits of using the Customs Enforcement Network, joint regional and international operations and capacity building plans intended to be implemented in 2012.
The United Nations Environment Program/Regional Office for West Asia (UNDEP/ROWA) will deliver a presentation highlighting their activities relating to customs business.
The Regional Intelligence Liaison Office in the Middle East (RILO ME) based in Riyadh the capital city of Saudi Arabia comprises of 10 member states namely; UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. RILO ME aims at facilitating the process of gathering , collating, analyzing and disseminating information relating to prohibited and counterfeited products among the countries in the region and the other competent organizations and administrations in combating customs crimes at local and international levels and all WCO members.
At the end of the opening session, Ms. Agnieszka Butrym Bielatko, WCO representative, introduced the Organization’s Shield to HE Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Director General of Dubai Customs, as a sign of appreciation for Dubai custom’s success at the international level and its contribution to the international customs work. Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz Al Araj, Director of RILO ME introduced the Office’s shield to Mr. Butti in appreciation to Dubai Customs’ efforts in exchange of information that led to many seizures at the regional level and sharing such information with international RILO network.
HE also received the Medal of Sheikh Mubarak Al-Kabeer, the founder of the Kuwaiti Customs, by Mr. Abdulla Sultan, representative of Kuwaiti Customs in appreciation to the fruitful cooperation between Dubai Customs and its Kuwaiti counterpart.