His Excellency President of Customs and Chairperson of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) Council, Shaikh Ahmed bin Hamad Al Khalifa, delivered a speech on the occasion of the International Customs Day, which falls on January 26 every year, in which he expressed his pride in the care and support of the wise leadership for the development, security and economic growth in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Also, he noted that His Excellency Minister of Interior has harnessed all capabilities in various development and modernisation processes to provide all services in accordance with the highest international standards.
Below is His Excellency’s speech:
On the occasion of the International Customs Day, which falls on January 26 every year, and this year comes under the slogan “scaling up Customs Digital Transformation by Embracing a Data Culture and Building a Data Ecosystem”, we are pleased to extend our best congratulations, wishing it a year full of achievements for the better at all levels.
It is an opportunity to commend the efforts made with a high level of professional awareness by the employees of the ports, especially the employees of the customs affairs in coordination and cooperation with the relevant authorities. It reached 1188 seizures during the year 2021, so they have our respect and appreciation. We commend their constant vigilance and sense of security as they are considered the most vital pillars of direct response to customs smuggling of all kinds, which amounted to 1,188 seizures during the year 2021.
We note the exceptional circumstances the world is going through during the Corona pandemic “COVID19” and the extent to which various sectors are affected by its consequences; Which we must use as a direct incentive to continue the support and capacity-building programmes for customs employees, by exploiting all available means to implement these programmes and to exchange best practices and information locally and regionally, which would keep pace with the changes in the work environment in line with the current advanced technologies and software.
The initiatives presented by Kingdom of Bahrain in various fields to contribute to economic recovery and confront this pandemic, has become a model to be emulated globally and had a great impact in easing the burdens on importers of traders and companies. Customs affairs played a prominent role in implementing economic-nature decisions in order to ensure the smooth import and export of goods, medicines, vaccines and relief materials through various customs ports.
In terms of achievements, Customs Affairs was able during the year 2021 to achieve many awards in regional and international forums, which embodies one of the objectives of Kingdom of Bahrain's Economic Vision 2030 in terms of increasing the level of competition that requires increased productivity and innovation.
At the global level, Kingdom of Bahrain won the position of Chairperson of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) Council by acclamation by all members of the Council for the second time in a row. For the third year in a row, Customs Affairs obtained the Quality Management System Certificate in accordance with International Standards (ISO 9001: 2015) from the awarding body (UKAS) after passing the audit from the French company (BUREAU VERITAS). This certificate is considered an important achievement for Customs Affairs in order to achieve one of the pillars of Bahrain’s economic vision of sustainability. Moreover, Customs Affairs won an international award in the field of representation and compliance with health and safety protocols against the Corona virus. Locally, Customs Affairs won the e-Government Excellence Competition for the Community Participation Project and in the Individuals Sector for the Best Electronic Proposal category.
In conclusion, we are all confident that each one of us is of great and complementary importance to our collective role in strengthening our determination to provide and achieve more in order to defend our land, air and sea borders and contribute to support the national economy and promote legitimate travel and trade to and from Kingdom of Bahrain.