The World Customs Organization (WCO) Praises Abu Dhabi Customs’ Development Strategy

The delegation of the World Customs Organization was headed by Si Mohamed El Hail from the Capacity Enhancement Directorate of WCO, Julie Brock, Development and Training Officer, Tarek Bourhima, Director of Customs Development at the Federal Customs Authority, and a number of supervisory leaders in the General Administration of Customs - Abu Dhabi.

During the visit and its accompanying meeting, Al Shamsi explained the developments of the strategic plan initiated by the General Administration of Customs - Abu Dhabi for the process of strategic transformation since the beginning of 2018, by laying the initial foundations for the five-year journey of the comprehensive strategic plan and the subsequent operational plans to translate it at the various executive levels in all the administrative units affiliated with Abu Dhabi Customs through a number of development programs and strategic projects in terms of operations and technical and administrative affairs.

Mr. Fahad Ghareeb Al Shamsi, Executive Director of Abu Dhabi Customs Operations Sector, said that the launch of the comprehensive strategic transformation of the Corporation was sponsored directly by the wise leadership, through which Abu Dhabi Customs aims to achieve global leadership in the customs field, which contributes effectively to facilitate cross-border trade and prosperity of the economic development of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, by achieving a qualitative and quantitative development at all levels to provide a customs model to be followed by customs authorities at the Arab, regional and global levels as well.

Al Shamsi stressed that the strategic transformation of Abu Dhabi Customs comes with the adoption of an ambitious and clearly defined plan, goals and details, where the plan includes implementation of 53 projects within 14 programs across 6 axes to achieve 7 strategic objectives that include contribution to make Abu Dhabi the preferred destination for import and export at the regional level, and improve revenue collection to contribute to achieving security through effective risk management, achieving optimized operational excellence of resources, improving the organizational structure of the organization, attracting and training distinguished human resources, and developing an advanced IT infrastructure.

On his part, the delegation of the World Customs Organization (WCO) praised the pioneering experience of Abu Dhabi Customs in strategic development, which proves its ability to enhance its leading role at the international level, pointing out that what they saw during this visit regarding the customs work system, the human resources projects, and the training programs developed and conducted by Abu Dhabi Customs, all in line with the international standards of customs, clearly reflect the scale and size of development and improvement adopted by Abu Dhabi Customs, which is demonstrated by the results achieved and the pioneering performance results in using the best international standards in developing human element, in addition to Abu Dhabi Customs adoption of a vital approach in developing innovative training programs for inspectors, which are categorized based on their academic qualifications, linking these programs vertically to the strategic plan of the Administration, and horizontally to the targeted training needs.