Pushing Boundaries, Changing Horizons The World Customs Organization and the Customs Administration of The Netherlands are pleased to announce the 5th WCO Technology & Innovation Forum, to be held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, from 26 to 29 October 2015. Are you interested in innovative technology solutions designed for the optimal flow, safety and security of the global supply chains? Would you like to know more about the future of Customs enforcement? Are you curious to learn how supply chain visibility can be enhanced, and how Customs and businesses can benefit from improved transparency? If so, this is the place to be. High-level representatives from different governmental agencies, technology providers, research institutes and businesses dealing with regulation, compliance and enforcement of cross-border movement of goods and passengers will participate in the Forum. During the event, the newest insights, latest developments and most recent trends will be demonstrated and discussed by the leading experts. Attendees will have an opportunity to participate in this dialogue and share their experiences both on a personal level and with a wider audience. Central themes Day 1: Cooperation among supply chain actors - Emerging challenges & border responses; - Doing more with less: a policy option or a strategic priority? - Managing risks in times of big data. Day 2: Inspections & Technology - What s in the box? New detection technologies & their functions; - The why and how of modern surveillance technologies. Day 3: Trusted Trade Relationships - Fostering partnerships in the fight against illegal trade. And there is more. Forum visitors can also learn more during the tech-talks or live demonstrations of the newest technologies and other innovations, as suppliers will proudly show what they have to offer at the exhibition. A whole host of suppliers will be present, from suppliers of analytical software to suppliers of surveillance and detection technologies. All in all, it promises to be an event not to be missed by all those who take the international movement of goods and people, as well as border safety and security seriously. We look forward to welcoming you in Rotterdam at the end of October. Mr. Kunio Mikuriya Secretary General of the World Customs Organization Mrs. Aly van Berckel-Van den Langemheen CEO of the Customs Administration of the Netherlands For more information, please visit the TI Forum website Should you have any questions, you can also reach us by email at ti2015@wcoomd.org
Together with my colleague Greg Pilkington, who takes care of the logistics and the partnerships with the private sector, I m responsible for the Technology & Innovation Forum. My team is setting up the programme: what does the public want to hear, what are today s hot topics among the participants, which speakers do we want to hear? This edition s motto is pushing boundaries, changing horizons. This certainly is a broad theme, and an appeal to the participants: think out of the box! The conference forms a meeting place for customs organisations and other agencies involved in supervising the borders, the business community, start-ups and the scientific community. It provides an opportunity to enter into a dialogue on the challenges and new technologies of today in a neutral setting. By sharing experiences with each other, customs and other border organisations can provide manufacturers with valuable feedback that they can use to refine their products. As pre-eminent innovation country, the Netherlands is the perfect host As well as keynote speeches there will be round-table sessions, panel discussions and live equipment demonstrations. Rotterdam centres on hybrid technologies in which hardware and software are combined, such as track & trace solutions. Participants will be given the opportunity to identify the latest trends in areas such as surveillance, detection methods, risk assessment and data forensics. The programme also includes an introduction to relatively new phenomena, such as drones. Of course, it wouldn t be possible to demonstrate everything live at the WTC. With that in mind, the working visits to Schiphol and the port of Rotterdam will form an attractive addition to the programme. We are pleased to see that the coming edition is being held in Rotterdam. To us, the Netherlands is the perfect host. It is the country of big thinkers, such as Spinoza and Erasmus. And I was recently given a list of innovations in Dutch history: a very long list. The stock exchange, ship building, the many innovations in the transport and logistics area, supply chain management Just look at how quickly the carriages go through the train scan at Dutch Customs that is unique to the Netherlands. I m also very impressed by how all goods movements are monitored in a programme such as Schiphol Smartgate Cargo. I m wondering about the turnout in October. The number of participants has grown steadily since the first edition. In 2009 80 percent of them were from the public sector, but the private sector is now in the majority. And we are seeing companies returning for the second or third time. It s clear that they appreciate the usefulness of this form of public-private partnership and recognise the added value of the TI Forum. Mariya Polner, policy advisor at the World Customs Organisation
We as a lobby organisation are pleased to see that the TI Forum is coming to Rotterdam. We can learn something from other countries and acquaint ourselves with the latest logistics innovations. The event also provides a good opportunity to shine a spotlight on the partnership between the public and private sectors in our country. That unique connection makes compliance anything but a dirty word for the Dutch business community. That is underlined by the fact that our country is second only to Germany in the number of AEO companies. Of course sometimes things go wrong and sometimes we disagree, but we set out to solve them amicably. As entrepreneurs we invest ongoing into our relationship with Customs. This creates possibilities for us to demonstrate at the TI Forum that good enforcement, modern supervision and reliable logistics go hand in hand. And working together on the future and creating confidence is also a form of innovation. In the Netherlands we do this by designing and mobilising modern inspection resources and concepts: scanning equipment and self-scanning, coordinated border management, green lanes And through extensive computerisation such as the development of a public-private IT platform for the logistics sector; open and neutral. The way we see it, the key question at the end of October in Rotterdam will be how we can innovate even more. Customs super- vision and reliable FENEX welcomes the fact that Dutch politics are also fostering big ambitions in that area. Logistics, for example, has been highlighted as one of the nine national top sectors, and regaining our leading position is on top of the agenda. But bringing these ambitions to effect will take a substantial amount of investment and innovation. It is also important for us to realise that the Netherlands strongly depends on Europe and the rest of the world. I would therefore like to see us using the TI Forum and the informal programme to explain and propagate our line of thinking. The Netherlands is a front runner, and we re pleased to share the knowledge we gain that way. logistics go hand in hand here Marty van Pelt, manager at FENEX, trade association for the forwarding sector
This is a great opportunity to place the Customs Administration of The Netherlands in the spotlight as a sophisticated agency. Our organisation ticks all of the boxes when it comes to technical innovation. Our physical inspection is supported by smart apps, even though we no longer really regard them as being innovative. After all, we ve been developing them for over two years and they re now included in the standard kit of our inspection officers. We also have a Customs Laboratory that s among the top in the world. It attracts a lot of visitors from abroad. It is bursting with state of the art equipment. One of the most recent acquisitions is a scanner that can be used to detect designer drugs based on their molecular structure. Customs is also involved in the research project EU Decathlon. Under this project methods are being developed for the identification of organic material based on DNA. And then there s the Google Glass development, another innovation Customs has experimented with. This wearable does not provide us with any added value yet, and the study into its usability has therefore been discontinued. But this does show that we re open to the latest innovations, and we re considering whether we can make use of them in our primary process. We can show how modernisation has The Technology & Innovation Forum was initiated by the WCO, but we as the host country can add certain emphasis. As an example, we will be providing several keynote speakers for the opening. The Customs Administration of The Netherlands has also been asked to organise the working visits planned for the final day. Although this is an optional component, I think that it will attract a lot of interest. At important hubs such as the port of Rotterdam and Schiphol airport we will be showing how we have modernised our customs supervision to organise our activities even better: less vertical and more horizontal. After all, it s not just about opening a certain number of containers each year, but about entering into a dialogue with companies. This event will give the participants the opportunity to see with their own eyes how Customs works with other government agencies and the business community. That is what lies at the core of the Dutch approach: we work together. made our supervision even better Chahid Azarkan, process architect and secretary of the Customs Innovation Platform
Watch the trailer of the 5 th WCO Technology & Innovation Forum