At the very outset, I extend my heartiest congratulations and commendation to the Organisers of 2011 WCO IT Conference and Exhibition for providing a comprehensive platform for IT developers, software vendors, Customs and Trade from the world over.
Hopefully, the IT Conference will open up windows to explore new ways of applying IT for quality service delivery at the ports and effective monitoring at Customs borders to ensure privacy, security and sovereignty of a nation. The participants from Customs and other government agencies will find immense opportunities in the shape of this conference to take a glimpse into the future of best practices in information management through IT applications that the "cloud technology" is likely to unfold.
Pakistan Customs embarked upon a comprehensive reforms project about one decade ago. The use of IT Technology has been one of the hallmarks of reforms initiative undertaken by Pakistan Customs. Resultantly, cost of doing business has considerably gone down and quality of service delivery has improved at the ports / Customs borders. We have, however, a long way to go. We understand that improvements in IT Technology are fast-paced and the competitive advantage of an organisation mainly depends how fast it embraces the new technologies.
In this background, Pakistan Customs is committed to embrace world's best practices that will help to further improve its processes, operations and service delivery. I hope that the IT Conference and Exhibition, 2011 will also provide vast array of opportunities to the potential partners and participants of the Conference. Besides IT professionals and government agencies, the representative of trade and business will also benefit through interaction and networking with various stakeholders. I am fully confident that the WCO IT Conference will go a long way in expanding the economic horizon of the government agencies as well as trade / industry representatives that in turn will contribute to the overall progress of the nation.