We, the ASEAN Directors-General of Customs of Brunei Darussalam, the Republic of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of Singapore, the Kingdom of Thailand and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN);

NOTING the emerging trends and developments in the regional and global arena, in particular globalisation and the increasing competitiveness of the world's economies;

MINDFUL of the challenges these trends would pose on ASEAN, in particular ASEAN Customs Administrations, so as to sustain the economic dynamism and competitiveness of the region;

RECOGNISING the rapid changes taking place within the region, the need to promote closer economic integration in ASEAN, and the implications these have for ASEAN Customs Administrations;

FURTHER RECOGNISING the dynamic changes which are required by customs to stay ahead of these international and regional developments;

BELIEVING that customs must aim to provide excellence and quality service to the ASEAN community, that they must enhance the efficiency, integrity and sophistication of their administrations, and that customs must provide consistent, simple and transparent procedures and requirements;

COMMITTING to deepen and broaden ASEAN Customs cooperation and partnership to promote customs cohesiveness and uniformity within the region;

RECOGNISING the mission of ASEAN Customs to improve the cross-border flow of goods, reduce the cost of trade transactions and to ensure a higher standard of health, safety, security and prosperity to all peoples of ASEAN;

FURTHER RECOGNISING the need to formulate a long term vision for customs which will chart the future role of ASEAN Customs Administrations and to set new heights for customs cooperation in ASEAN, so as to collectively face, and cohesively deal, with the present and emerging challenges posed on customs;

NOW THEREFORE we have agreed on the following Vision for the year 2020:

an ASEAN Customs Partnership for World Class Standards and Excellence in efficiency, professionalism and service, and uniformity through harmonised procedures, to promote trade and investment and to protect the health and well-being of the ASEAN community.

AND FURTHER AGREED that to realise our Vision, we shall collectively develop administrative and technical areas on customs so as to strengthen our administrations on a regional basis. In each of these areas, we shall initiate the following elements with their corresponding objectives:

Technical Elements:

1. Procedures for Goods in Transit and Temporary Admission: to simplify and harmonise these procedures and requirements on a regional basis;

2. Automation: to ensure maximum use of state-of-the-art information technology to assist in the efficient performance of all international trade and customs functions and activities. Such systems should comply with UNEDIFACT to enhance linkage;

3. Cargo Processing: to promote facilitation, simplicity and uniformity for the processing of cargo. Targets will be formulated for the time release of goods, benchmarks and performance standards to be reviewed and met continuously. To develop activities which account for the assurance that only those procedures that contribute to effective implementation of customs control is utilised; to separate the process of goods release from process of revenue collection, accounting and statistical reporting to expedite customs clearance; to establish pre-arrival processing of transactions; to use advanced risk assessment, profiling and selectivity techniques to identify risk consignments for physical examination;

4. Tariff Classification: to promote transparency, consistency and uniformity/equivalence of treatment on tariff classification rulings;

5. Valuation: to promote transparency, consistency and uniformity on valuation methods and rulings;

6. Rules of Origin: to promote transparency and uniformity/equivalence of application of rules of origin;

7. Audit: to apply post-entry audits and development of ASEAN guidelines for post-audit system based on best practices;

8. Enforcement: to apply risk management techniques and check small percentage of consignments;

Administrative Elements:

1. Training and Human Resource Development: to promote regional uniformity, coordinated action, equivalent treatment and homogeneity. Also to promote excellence, resource, expertise, research on customs relevant to the needs of the region;

2. Partnership with the Business Community: to establish a close relationship with the business community for the mutual benefit of customs control, revenue collection, trade and commercial activity.

3. Mutual Assistance: to enhance the effectiveness of customs compliance and control to reduce smuggling and other customs frauds, and to promote uniformity and harmonisation;

4. International Customs Fora: to conform to international standards to promote consistency of customs treatment to traders. To ensure greater coherence and proactiveness of ASEAN customs in relevant international fora;

5. Technical Assistance Programme to ASEAN Customs Administrations: to promote equal levels of development amongst customs administration in ASEAN so as to enhance regional efficiency, effectiveness and uniformity;

6. Transparency Enhancement: to promote transparency, accountability, appeals and accessibility to information on customs procedures and requirements;

7. Strategic Planning and Management: to take enlightened approaches to management of customs by defining corporate objectives and strategic plans to strike the right balance between customs control and trade facilitation. To make better use of resources, strengthen management capabilities and devise apporpriate systems, processes and structures. To ensure the highest level of integrity and professional standards within customs and the provision of quality service;

RESOLVED to ensure the realisation of our Vision, we have agreed to set appropriate benchmarks, milestones and performance standards to monitor the programmes, and we will review the progress in implementing the activities for the Vision at the annual Meetings of the ASEAN Directors-General of Customs;

FURTHER RESOLVED to ensure that the role of customs is enhanced in the ASEAN community, we call upon all relevant parties of society, in particular the trading community, shipping agents, customs brokers and forwarding agents to establish closer cooperative links with ASEAN Customs so as to facilitate the realisation of our Vision;

NOW THEREFORE we have tasked our officers to develop appropriate activities and programmes to realise this Vision and report their progress to us regularly.

DONE on this 23rd day, in the month of May, 1997, in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.