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WCO to focus on outsourcing
WCO is set to deliberate on the prospects of outsourcing and offshoring of IT services when it meets on Thursday.
The World Customs Organisation (WCO), an inter-governmental agency, is set to deliberate on the prospects of outsourcing and offshoring of IT services in customs operations in member countries when it meets on Thursday.
Being held for the first time in India, the fifth Information and Communication Technology (ICT) conference-cum-trade show April 6-8 here will be inaugurated by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the presence of Infosys Technologies mentor NR Narayana Murthy and Wipro chairman Azim H Premji.
A customs department official said that 250 to 300 delegates, including 100 from overseas, will discuss the role of ICT in meeting the growing tasks of customs administration and streamlining the international trade supply chain.
"The three-day conference will discuss the latest trends in ICT for customs and explore ways and means to outsource and offshore IT services in the 21st century.
"With increasing globalisation of trade and goods, about 170 member countries of the WCO will identify the opportunities and challenges for the management of customs IT," the official said.
Organised by the Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC), the conference-cum-exposition will bring top IT hardware/software vendors and heads of customs on a single platform to network and draw plans to implement the best IT practices.
"The conference will provide insights into how customs can stay in control of its vital functions while outsourcing or even offshoring of IT functions to a specialised service provider.
"The focus is on how customs worldwide can maintain a sustainable ICT infrastructure that responds to the demands from all its stakeholders, in particular the private sector," the official pointed out.
Besides customs officials and IT head honchos, other stakeholders such as businesses, trade unions, lending institutions and intermediaries in international trade will interact to formulate a blueprint for making customs operations user-friendly.
"The trade show will offer first-hand knowledge of ICT in customs administration and an opportunity to develop customs-business partnership in a PPP (public-private partnership) model and explore potential markets in terms of outsourcing and offshoring software development."
Among the prominent speakers slated to deliver the keynote addresses are WCO Deputy Director Ray McDonagh, Shoumen Datta of MIT, Joseph Salvo of General Electric (GE), Franz Dill of Proctor & Gamble (P&G), Peter Koudal of Deloitte Global Research, Andy Mulholland of Capgemini, Tom Doyle of Accenture, Clive Granger of SAP and Nobel laureate in Economics (2003) Clive Granger.
The previous four WCO-ICT events were held in Turkey (2005), Malaysia (2004), South Africa (2003) and Belgium (2002).
