Interviews - Cross-border Research Association

Interview with Mr. Heikkurinen, CBRA

October 30, 2017/in Interviews /by Vladlen Tsikolenko

30.10.2017: CBRA Interview with Geneva-based Mr. Matti Heikkurinen, who works as a part-time ICT and standardization expert at CBRA.

Hi Matti! Can you please tell a bit about yourself: who you are and what you do?

I guess I’m a typical computer scientist/ software engineer turned into an informatics practitioner and research manager with a weakness for science communications. A ten-year detour as a consultant/ independent researcher/ entrepreneur between the two probably ticks the remaining boxes of “the usual story”.

While the end points may seem similar at a glance, they are pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum. The initial motivation was to find an area where everything is binary, formalized and human element is ideally absent – or at least, tamed into an abstract specification. These days most of the work deals with human element, or at least the failure of the reality to comply with the theoretical specifications. Thus, the yin became the yang and an introvert an extrovert – at least in the office…

One constant has been working with distributed systems, typically in settings where the components are from different organizations or countries. Whether we are talking about the web – even web 1.0 -, cloud computing or big/ open data, you tend to see similar patterns. Success requires solving fundamental technical challenges – starting from the fact that the speed of light that is too slow -, finding semantics that work across language and cultural barriers, and coming up with operational practices and governance models that balance efficient decision making and shared sense of ownership. System tends to be as strong as the weakest link, but even defining the “weakest” is a transdisciplinary problem!

On the concrete level the “what I do” has ranged from developing system software for telephone switches to supporting policy work related to IT services for European research and education – network, computing and data services ranging from laptops to supercomputers supporting 50 million users. Analysis, outreach and fundraising work that I do at the moment often ends up covering surprisingly large fraction of the range – analyzing the impact of new technical specifications in order to put their potential impact into context of a joint research agenda or socioeconomic impact tend to fit a multi-pronged approach.

How did you join CBRA?

I think in the end it was inevitable, just to balance out the very improbable history of how I met Juha Hintsa, the founder of CBRA. Juha and I were at the same high school for same time – ahem, a few years ago – but even though we had common friends we never met. Two decades or so later, we had the same boss for five years – but again, never met. One more decade, and we both got curious about management of the IT systems in the cross-border trade domain, got email-introduced by our ex-boss, had several interesting chats on the phone, co-authored a conference paper sketching out the problem domain. But although we talked, a lot for two Finns, but didn’t meet. In the end, some of the themes in the CORE project resonated with the ideas we had with the paper, there was a specific task that needed extra effort quickly and I got hired. We even managed to meet!

Successful logistics operations are always collaborative in nature

Which work you have been carrying out in CBRA while working in projects like CORE and SYNCHRO-NET?

A lot of the work has been related to different standards that both projects need to take into account in their developments. One of the interesting things, that keeps on surprising me, is the variety and sheer number of relevant standards. Global supply chains rely on standards ranging from specifying meaning of specific bits in an RFID chip to rules balancing the privacy and law enforcement needs – and anything and everything in between. And for each domain, the saying “The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from” holds true… I have also been guilty of interfering with some formal modelling tasks that capture how different supply chain actors interact, and how they could optimally interact.

At the moment I am in the process of analyzing the standardization approach of the CORE project, distilling an overview of the experiences and identifying trends and lessons learned. These summaries will hopefully be useful for the follow-up activities as well as serving as basis for training and education material for the different target audiences of the project.

What have been the most interesting tasks that you have been assigned to in CBRA?

I think picking the most interesting task at CBRA would be very difficult. The scale and inherent complexity of the global supply chains makes the IT systems supporting them very interesting area of study. The new opportunities and challenges brought on by maturing solutions like big/open data services or blockchain technologies are especially interesting in an environment where the impact of even the tiniest incremental optimization will be measured in tens or hundreds of millions of euros, or, improved access to markets for whole nations, or reduction of environmental footprint on the global scale..

Thanks Matti for the interview, and see you again soon, in Geneva or Lausanne or somewhere else where CBRA projects may take us to…!

CBRA Interview on 30.10.2017 by Ms. Susana Wong (photos: Matti Heikkurinen)

Supply chain digitalisation – logistics at the speed of light?

Interview with Ms. Susana Wong, CBRA and HEC University of Lausanne

September 28, 2017/in Interviews /by Vladlen Tsikolenko

Hola Susana! Can you please tell a bit about yourself: who you are and what you do?

Hola Juha! Thank you for inviting me to this interview. Before working full time for CBRA, I worked in the University of Costa Rica as the director of the Customs Administration and Foreign Trade Bachelor´s Program and as a lecturer in the areas of WTO ́s Agreement, Regional Trade agreements, among other topics. While working at the University, my colleagues and I applied and obtained a USAID Grant for the development of a Central American web and mobile platform that aimed to reduce cost and time of road transportation in the region – a platform which also included the creation of logistics indicators that measured the efficiency of customs border posts in Central America. From 2014 to 2017 I was the manager of such an interesting project!

Before joining the University of Costa Rica and the CBRA, I was a Free Trade Agreement negotiator in the areas of rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation at the Ministry of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica. For this job, I had to work closely with the Costa Rican Customs Administration in order to negotiate the chapter of customs procedures of the FTAs, topic such as advance rulings, expedited clearance, and publications, among others, were discussed. I also worked closely with the Costa Rican mission at the World Trade Organization while negotiating the WTO ́s trade facilitation text. I reviewed the text, gave suggestions and discussed it with the Customs authorities, Costa Rican National Single Windows, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Agriculture.

After the Ministry, I decided to move to a private consulting company where I advised enterprises and persons interested to import or export goods around the world. My job was to help them comply with the applicable regulations, most of the cases being related to the usage of the certificate of origin, the interpretation of rules of origin across the FTAs, the compliance of customs procedures necessary to import/export goods, as well as the compliance with import and export licensing requirements.

You started active work with CBRA already in 2015, right after the PICARD2015 Conference in Baku, if I recall correctly … What have been the most interesting projects and tasks you have worked with us during the past 24 months?

I have been involved in many interesting projects with CBRA! I recall working on a study mandated by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in which the CBRA team presented many case studies and best practices for the implementation of international and national border agency cooperation as well as provided recommendations on how to improve border agency cooperation among the OIC member states for facilitating trade. I also worked on the Authorized Economic Operator Benefit Surveys that aims to detail the customs benefits available and implemented in AEOs across the globe; for this project, I went to Cancun for the WCO third Global AEO meeting in 2016 to collect the survey replies. Additionally, I participated in the project related to the comparative analysis between Vietnam, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Russia regarding the negative impacts of trafficking and illicit trade; this study was presented during the 11^th PICARD Conference 2016, in Manila, the Philippines. Also, under the WP19 CORE Education and Training material from FP7-CORE, I have been developing short courses related to Trade Facilitation, INCOTERMs and the role of governments and the World Trade Organization on the Supply Chain; these courses will be made available on CANVAS tool.

Now you just moved to Lausanne, initially with a 1-year Swiss Excellence Grant, and hopefully soon a full PhD-program entry at the University of Lausanne, HEC Business School, Professor Ari-Pekka Hameri as the lead thesis supervisor… How did the first weeks go in der Schweiz?

It has been very intense! There are so many new projects and I am very excited to be part of them. Two weeks ago, we had the kick-off meeting for the PRECISE project, where I met all the team members of this project and started to discuss the next steps and roles for each one of us. I am very impressed with the quality of professional integrating the PRECISE team, therefore, I am very happy to work with all of them during the next 18 months.

In this first month, I also got to meet Tom Butterly in Geneva with whom we have been working during the past three months on the development of the business model for the ePhyto Solution, provided by the International Plant Protection Convention Secretariat at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. I am confident that we will finish this project successfully and present the results to the IPPC on December 2017. For more information about the ePhyto Solution, see our recent Blog on this topic!

Also, last week, Toni Männistö and I went to UNECE to define the next steps for the Assessment of regulatory and procedural measures in trade – first in Georgia and later in Armenia. I wish good luck to Toni who will be in Georgia sometime during October, conducting very intense interviews with Customs Authorities, other border agency institutions, importing/exporting companies, among other key actors.

Having carried out such tasks with CBRA during this month, I am sure that I will not become bored while staying in Switzerland.

I am personally now at the PICARD2017 Conference in Hammamet, Tunisia – would you have research related greetings to send to the conference participants?

I am sad that I was not able to attend to the PICARD2017 conference, but I can´t leave Switzerland until my residence permit is accepted (let’s not mess with Swiss rules!)

As part of the PICARD Advisory Group, I would first like to invite all the Universities and institutions around the world which teach customs and trade related matters to certify their corresponding program under the WCO´s PICARD Professional Standards (http://www.wcoomd.org).

Furthermore, this year PICARD topics are related Trade Facilitation, Security matters, Data Analysis and Customs-Tax Cooperation. CBRA has been actively researching particularly under the first two topics. I encourage you all to follow CBRA´s work and to contact us if you would like us to collaborate with your institutions in Supply Chain Security and Trade Facilitation research!

Thanks a lot Susana for this interesting interview – and welcome again to stay in Switzerland, hopefully for several years to come!

CBRA Interview on 28.9.2017 by Dr. Juha Hintsa

Interview with Dr. Phan Hien, CBRA

August 31, 2017/in Interviews /by Vladlen Tsikolenko

31.8.2017: Dr. Phan Hien from the Foreign Trade University of Hanoi, Vietnam speaks about her current research engagement and previous activities at the University of Lausanne.

Hi Phan Hien! Thank you for joining today’s CBRA interview. Can you tell us a bit about your professional background and how you came to be interested in CBRA?

I am very happy to have entered CBRA’s global network and to join this interview. As a University lecturer in Vietnam, I am always eager to broaden my academic knowledge and make progress in my teaching and research career. In 2005, I became a lecturer of international trade transactions, customs and business negotiation after working as a business executive for a large state-owned corporation (Vietnam Motor Industry Corporation) for 5 years. These experiences triggered a strong interest in global supply chain management and customs operations, two important areas for both governments and enterprises for doing business in the international market.

I can recall that in 2008, I contacted several universities and educational institutes globally to apply for advanced courses for customs administrations, and received no response from anyone except Dr. Juha Hintsa, the founder and director of CBRA. He provided great inspiration and increased my interest in cross-border trade and customs operations. Through my research experience in Switzerland, I came to recognize the academic excellence and professionalism of CBRA in this domain. At this point, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Hintsa and CBRA.

Can you briefly describe your experiences as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Lausanne and your involvement with CBRA in 2015-2016?

Frankly speaking, one of the best rewards I have received as an academician was my enrolment as a post-doctoral research at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland that was sponsored by the Swiss Excellent Scholarship for Foreign Scholars in 2015-2016. During this period, I received firm support from Professor Ari-Pekka Hameri from the University of Lausanne, and from Dr. Hintsa and his CBRA colleagues.

My research project focused on the socio-economic negative impacts of illicit trade, concentrating on three countries – Vietnam, Switzerland and Costa Rica. I worked hard to provide a comprehensive picture of law enforcement and cross-border trade operations in the developing economies of Vietnam and Costa Rica versus a developed one like Switzerland. The research outcomes indicate that increased globalization of markets leads to more effective cross-border trade policies and better implementation of law enforcement activities. The project results also raise awareness of the business community and other global supply chain stakeholders to take interest and share obligations for sustainable development across the globe.

In addition, this project provided me opportunities to deliver high-level lectures on supply chain security and trade facilitation at the University of Lausanne and for other CBRA educational activities. Besides enhancing my knowledge, I could further develop my teaching and presentation skills that are essential attributes for a University lecturer and a scholar. I am also trying my best to transfer my newly acquired knowledge to my students at the Foreign Trade University of Vietnam and beyond. To conclude, my role as a post-doctoral researcher in Switzerland has been a professional milestone and a very meaningful stage of my career.

You are currently engaged in a study focusing on the timber supply chain between Vietnam and the European Union. Can you elaborate a bit on this project and specify the most pressing security concerns related to timber trade?

Thank you for your interest in my recent study of the timber operations of Vietnamese exporters to the EU, which is funded by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, SERI, of Switzerland. I am on the verge of completing this project and producing the final report within the proposed timeline. To be honest, conducting empirical research such as this is no easy matter in Vietnam, where there is a lower level of transparency about issues related to timber exports, in the context of trade liberalization and globalization. I am analysing all timber-related issues that are strongly affecting the timber supply chains and the export performance of Vietnamese firms. Higher security and technical standards in timber trade supply chains of the Vietnamese exporters will facilitate and foster timber exports to the EU markets.

I also hope that the research outcomes will enhance mutual cooperation between Vietnam and the EU for the implementation of FLEGT VPA and EVFTA, which will come into force in the next couple months. The Agreement aims to address illegal logging and promote the trade of certified timber products from Vietnam to the EU. Further, this piece of research is expected to contribute towards mitigating illicit trade of timber in Vietnam and its neighbouring countries and help reach the UN targets of sustainable development in the 21^st century.

Thank you, Phan Hien, for the many interesting insights on your research work and outcomes.

CBRA Interview on 31.8.2017 by Dr. Sangeeta Mohanty.

Interview with Dr. Sangeeta Mohanty, CBRA

June 22, 2017/in Interviews /by Vladlen Tsikolenko

22.6.2017: In today’s interview, Dr. Sangeeta Mohanty from CBRA Switzerland, speaks about her engagement in CBRA activities.

Hi Sangeeta! Can you tell us a bit about your background and what you have been doing at CBRA?

Hi Juha, certainly. I have a diverse academic background over a range of humanities and social science disciplines including economics, political science, law, European Studies and English literature. I have complemented this with additional education in general and specialised business studies, including International Business, Corporate Strategy and Enterprise Risk Management. Prior to joining CBRA, I was working in different capacities in training and education for about six years. Since joining CBRA in 2011, I have been involved in multifarious global supply chain security, waste crime, and transport management projects, namely FOCUS, CASSANDRA, SAFEPOST, CORE, CWIT, DOTCOM Waste and SYNCHRO-NET. In addition, I have been actively engaged in a couple of trade facilitation projects, including the de-minimis study on indirect border taxes in the European Union and the study on border agency cooperation for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

You have been actively engaged in two illegal waste management projects. Can you elaborate a little on your contribution to these projects?

The CWIT (Countering Waste Electrical and Electronic Illegal Trade) consortium strived for a deep understanding of the legal and illegal streams of electronic waste and offered a holistic research perspective to recognise and leverage the relevance and interconnectedness of the various e-waste related aspects, including the regulatory framework, operational procedures, monitoring capabilities, public awareness and training, intelligence and information management, new technologies and prosecution priorities. On behalf of CBRA, I was involved in a plethora of activities related to policy and stakeholder assessment; law enforcement and compliance gap analysis, identification of e-waste distribution channels; estimation of illegally traded e-waste volumes and illicit profits; and the development of a roadmap for future research and technology. The culmination point of the CWIT project was the development of clear and specific recommendations for the European Commission, national governments and the e-waste industry for concerted action against illegal trade and mismanagement. Perhaps my most important contribution to the successful outcome of the project was related to these endeavours, with me being mostly responsible for all recommendations pertaining to the European legal framework and law enforcement strategic capabilities. To disseminate the project results, you and I have published academic papers and a news article for the WCO magazine. Let us now team up for more.

In the follow-up project, DOTCOM Waste (Development of Tools to Counter Illegal Management and Trade of Waste) that leans more towards practice-oriented training for all waste types, I played a key role in two main activities: 1) performing a Risk Analysis of waste crimes, and 2) development and design of the training toolkit and materials. I joined hands with Mr Guido Villa (TECOMS, Italy) and Dr. Toni Männistö, my CBRA colleague, to produce a comprehensive risk mapping of waste crimes based on the extensive data collected on intelligence gathering, real cases of violations, investigations on illicit management and illegal trade of waste in Europe and in select destination regions (West Africa and Asia). With support from the United Nations University (Germany), I conducted the Training Needs Assessment to better understand the training needs of police, customs and port authorities and other relevant stakeholders that would benefit from additional training on waste crime related matters. This exercise was intended to allow for the assessment of the current gaps in capacity building and designing the DOTCOM training toolkit accordingly. Right now, as a member of the organising team, I am in the midst of a flurry of activities to ensure the smooth running of the joint DOTCOM-BLOCKWASTE conference on November 23, 2017.

Now tell me, what exactly motivates you to do your work?

The highly specialised scientific knowledge gained from the numerous work involved in our international projects is enriching. I get the opportunity to collaborate and coordinate with a wide range of stakeholders from academic institutions, industry, national governments and international organisations. The outputs of our projects not only offer direct practical benefits, but address priority world needs like safety and security, environmental safeguard, human health protection, and sustainable economic growth. It gives me a feeling of deep satisfaction that all my research efforts are geared towards influencing key policy makers to make a positive difference in the world around us and society at large.

Thank you, Sangeeta, for sharing your experiences and passion for our activities!

Interview with Mr. van Bockel, Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure

May 11, 2017/in Interviews /by Vladlen Tsikolenko

11.5.2017: CBRA Interview with Mr. Roeland van Bockel, Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, on supply chain security regulations and standards, and beyond.

Thanks Roeland for joining CBRA Interview. Do you recall why and where we first met?

We met first in 2005. Between 2004-2008, I worked as a seconded national expert from the Netherlands at the European Commission. My task was to develop legislation that pieced together the already approved EU legislation on maritime and port security and extend it to surface freight transport.

We met at DG TREN. You identified yourself as a Ph.D student, researching the cost benefit for business to invest in transport security measures. At the time, the EC had outsourced consulting work to DNV, advising the EC on the most appropriate security mechanism to cover all surface transport modes especially focussing on terrorist threats. In 2005, we proposed to the EU Parliament and the EU Member States a kind of EU self regulatory legislation. This proposal for a “Regulation on enhancing supply chain security” allowed companies that met certain security quality criteria with a secure operator Status. These quality criteria referred to measures, being the measures taken by the operators, to safeguard the integrity of the supply chain for their part of the chain.

What happened with this proposal for Regulation on enhancing supply chain security?

To cut a long story short, this draft EU Regulation failed to be agreed by the EU Member States. As the legislation was to have an impact on 1.7 million EU companies, there appeared to be no common sense of urgency in Europe for this kind of all embracing supply chain security approach. In 2006, just after the EU Member States and the Parliament had approved the EU Customs legislation on the Authorised Economic Operator, EU AEO, we put the discussion of the proposal on hold.

What did you do after your job at the EC?

In 2008 I became a project manager of a EU FP 7 Research project on inland waterways transport “Platina”, tasked with infrastructure issues including virtual infrastructure – River Information Services. I also took up the responsibility of developing a CEN standard on supply chain security. In 2012 this led to a CEN standard for Reporting Crime Incidents in logistics and a CEN SCS Good practice handbook. You and your associates at the Cross-border Research Association substantially contributed to this work.

What came after this CEN work?

In 2012, I became the project coordinator of the TEN-T AnNa project, that focussed on enabling 14 EU Member States to develop a Maritime Single Window for electronic ship reporting. The focus was the digitalisation of transport. The principle being reporting once, multiple use. The need for EU Member States to develop a Single Window was to implement EU Directive reporting formalities (2010/65/EU). This stimulated business to report data electronically and administrations to receive data in an electronic format and to work together. An especially important feature being the need to develop a Single Window in an efficient way, that is value for money, optimal usage of IT legacy and smooth interconnectivity between various systems. Many influential parties were involved, including the ports and the European Commission. Both using this legal opportunity to strengthening it’s coordination tasks respectively in the perspective of smart ports and of an all-embracing EU Maritime Information Systems, EMSA, covering safety, environmental and security issues.

What keeps you occupied these days?

In 2016, after having worked 12 years in Brussels, I returned to the Netherlands. Currently my main occupation at the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment relates to the digitalisation in logistics and the development of a Single Window for Trade and Transport. It’s again a task that requires some endurance as it focuses on the need for administrations to co-operate and to develop an interoperable and understandable IT language that allows smooth data exchange between business and administrations. Fostering paperless transport of goods, I keep myself also busy in managing projects. In addition, the Dutch innovation in logistics goes hand in hand with cross border trade. Therefore, we support the development of an EU Digital Single Market and promote sophisticated trade facilitating approaches within the context of Union Customs Code. In my work, security remains an important theme. Without sufficient data security and privacy, smooth logistics interoperability is an illusion.

Thanks a lot Roeland for this interesting interview, and see you again this summer!

Interview with Mr. Vladlen Tsikolenko, CBRA Russia

April 30, 2017/in Interviews /by Vladlen Tsikolenko

30.4.2017: CBRA interview with our Technical Manager Vladlen Tsikolenko, on FP7-CORE, and beyond

Hi Vladlen, can you please tell a bit about yourself: who you are and what you do?

Hi Juha! Sure. I have a degree in electrical engineering and additional education in management and economics. Originally I worked as an IT expert, then as a private ERP consultant, and later as a logistics manager responsible for delivery and distribution of high value machinery parts from the EU to CIS regional markets. Currently my area of expertise includes information systems, processes, standards and data models; mathematical modeling; supply chain management; and technology management. As a researcher I have a long history with CBRA since year 2002, which includes activities in variety of research and consulting projects. While being a member of CBRA team I was involved in FP7-projects such as INTEGRITY, CASSANDRA and CORE.

True, you have worked with CBRA since the very early days – already in 2002-2004, when CBRA wasn’t even formally registered – but the supply chain security and trade facilitation research activities were running under the University of Lausanne, Professor Ari-Pekka Hameri being our gentle supervisor… By the way, do you recall our first project in 2002-2004 with DHL Express global customs and trade automation systems?

Yes, I remember it. Our first project was related with DHL’s Worldwide Clearance System, WCS, our bosses at DHL being Jeff “Bad-ass” Bass and Greg “to-be-Congress-man” Pilkington; in particular, it was about development of Country Configuration Template, CCT, for the WCS. The WCS was designed to improve service and enhance revenue by streamlining end-to-end customs clearance of DHL shipments. WCS functions boosted the DHL regional and local organizations ability to capture and store key customer and product information, automate commodity classification, control an inventory of customs and regulatory entries, communicate electronically with 3rd party brokers, and handle exceptions. The development of CCT was part of a business requirements gathering process. We collected user requirements for import/export operations from over 60 countries and put them into CCT for further analytical purposes. Ultimately, the CCT became storage for multiple shipment parameters describing calculation rules, categorization rules, clearance status, data cleansing, special treatment, movement details, exemptions and so forth.

Yes, good old times….! Lately, you have made significant contributions in FP7-project CORE – particularly in the technical work packages of the project. Can you elaborate bit on the work you have been doing?

Within FP7-CORE project my focus has been on development of several deliverables that belong to work packages from risk and IT clusters. In particular, regarding the CORE IT-cluster, I have contributed to the development of high level specifications for Supply Chain Security Reference Framework, SCSRF, model, which encodes all the data semantics required for information exchange activities between supply chain stakeholders. SCSRF consists of several building blocks providing necessary functionalities, including: common block developing a common supply chain process model for security, surveillance technologies, risk assessment, supply chain optimization, visibility as well as interoperability blocks. In CORE risk-cluster, I have played a role in the development of initial set of supply chain security controls and, later, in the development of additional controls to apply system based approach to assess compliance of supply chains. In all cases I had to study deliverable concept, participate in preparation of methodology and resource allocation, and finally collect relevant data from CORE demonstrator work packages to elaborate on application of the concept in real supply chains. At present I continue my work with CORE partners to develop next version of formal SCSRF specification with demonstrator based refinements.

For the last year of FP7-CORE, maybe the most important work for you – and multiple CBRA colleagues – is on the education and training materials, to be stored and shared in proper “educational content and process management platform”. Where do you see the biggest challenges lying ahead, when producing a comprehensive learning package, by April 2018?

The development of content for CORE educational and training package is a demanding task, requiring good knowledge of key CORE concepts, priority innovations as well as demos. I think that the main challenge in the overall CORE-project is the application of innovative developments in real-life demonstrations. At the same time, in CORE we need to show evidence of commercial benefits and effectiveness these innovations bring in global trade facilitation and supply chain management.

Regarding the CORE work package 19.1 in education and training, the first important aspect is identification of the intended audience. So far we have identified three main user groups: first group on any users who want to learn specific things about CORE project; second group with supply chain and government practitioners who are interested in CORE main approaches, findings and results, specifically tailored for their category of organizations; and third group consisting of academic organizations or individuals like under graduate and post graduate students, including at HEC University of Lausanne “Executive MBA program” http://hec.unil.ch/hec/emba and Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University “Executive Master in Customs and Supply Chain Compliance – Combining safety, security and sustainability with compliance and efficiency in international trade” https://www.rsm.nl.

Second aspect is related with the choice of the learning platform. There should be a reasonable balance between learning management system and knowledge database containing general information about CORE ambition, stakeholders, concepts and progress that have been achieved by demonstrators.

Third aspect is about intended learning outcomes. The outcomes will typically vary between different groups of learners. Here we also have to define how the user performance on the learning module will be assessed.

Finally, besides the above-mentioned aspects, while developing learning packages, we need to take into account following characteristics of learning material for the learning process to be effective: the learning material must be purposeful, structured, paced and engaging.

Thanks Vladlen for the interview – and thanks also for joining the CBRA Super-workshop in Thun, Switzerland, couple of weeks ago (note: we will publish soon a CBRA Blog on the Super-workshop, so please stay tuned…!).

Interview with Mr. Juha Ahokas, CBRA Finland

March 31, 2017/in Interviews /by Vladlen Tsikolenko

31.3.2017: Todays CBRA interview is with Mr. Juha Ahokas, who is currently working for CBRA in Finland.

Hi Juha, can you please tell first about your times at the Finnish insurance and crime prevention sector?

I worked seven years as property crime prevention expert for a Finnish insurance company. During 2004-2006 I was the head of Crime Prevention Committee of Finnish Insurance Companies. The committee has permanent members from National Bureau of Investigation, Helsinki Police Department and Finnish Security Intelligence Service. The committee works as trusted information sharing platform between insurance sector and police law enforcement agencies in Finland. Police agencies share information about criminal modus operandi and insurance experts about crime prevention technologies and services. The knowledge is transformed to practical security guidelines to ensure that crime prevention is modus operandi driven, instead of technology driven. European security standardisation plays a major role in the insurance guidelines. My main lesson learned was realising that criminals are very early adopters of new technologies.

Thanks for sharing that. And next, what did you do at INTERPOL during years 2015 and 2016?

I spent the two very fruitful years at INTERPOL in Lyon. I worked as a project manager in the EU funded project – FP7-CORE – Consistently Optimised Resilient Secure Global Supply Chains. I was, and still am, very convinced that police agencies can benefit from the project results. The management logic behind criminal supply chains closely resemble legal businesses. New skills would enable police officers to better identify criminal transactions and more generally to develop risk profiling, investigation and prosecution processes. I was able to plant a seed in this new way of thinking, but it will be a long journey, before the police agencies can reap the full benefits from global supply chain management thinking. What started in customs risk management some 10-20 years ago, has only recently started to expand to strategic and tactical intelligence work in police law enforcement agencies. Strict data processing rules and undeveloped data sharing practices between different law enforcement agencies are still major obstacles. Fortunately, some national law enforcement agencies for example in the UK and the Netherlands, have taken very promising steps in cross-agency collaboration.

Cool! And what do you do today, as part of the CBRA team in Finland?

Currently I collect, compile and write content – in close cooperation with TAPA EMEA and multiple European and national expert institutions – for the European Union “Commercial freight road transport sector security guidebook”, a seven-month project mandated and funded by EC DG MOVE. The guidebook will provide operational guidance to transport companies including drivers of commercial heavy goods vehicles to strengthen their security measures to help prevent both the theft of cargo and the unauthorized intrusion of irregular migrants into their vehicles. I hope the guidebook will become a “good position paper” that triggers broader discussion how different stakeholders can support secure and safe logistics chains. I would also like to see the guidebook to give an impulse to further develop local cost-efficient and intelligence-driven security practices, as well as to facilitate next generation of public-private collaborations in this important field.

Thanks Juha, and see you at the CBRA 2-week superworkshop in Switzerland in 1.5 weeks’ time!

Interview with Mr. Jimmy Pang, SCS Association, Hong Kong

February 28, 2017/in Interviews /by Vladlen Tsikolenko

28.2.2017: Todays CBRA interview with Mr. Jimmy Pang focuses on Supply Chain Security Association, and safety and security risks with lithium batteries, in the context of air cargo logistics.

Hi Jimmy, and thanks for joining CBRA Interview. Can you please tell first a bit about yourself: who you are and what you do?

With over 20 years of supply chain operation and consulting experience, I have witnessed vast changes taking place throughout the supply chains, in both Hong Kong and China. The resulting tragedies and incidents from various terrorist attacks, natural disasters, organised criminal activities and human errors have made me realize how critical it is to enhance world trade and supply chain security. Following twelve years of experience in aviation security and safety training, I have dedicated myself to promoting supply chain security, with the Supply Chain Security Association, SCSA, as well as with the TAPA Association, Hong Kong – aiming to raise overall awareness, to share my experiences through cooperation with universities, and to initiate research projects.

Can you share more details on the Supply Chain Security Association, SCSA?

The 9-11 incidents triggered policy makers, governments, industries, multi-national companies and non-governmental organizations to put forward a number of anti-terrorism initiatives. But all these different initiatives have created more confusion, instead of providing support to the export industries. As a result, a group of supply chain practitioners and scholars established the SCSA, aiming to facilitate safe and secure trading activities, by for example organising information sharing seminars and training courses. After the first few years, the association gained support from almost one hundred logistics companies. SCSA also participates actively in conferences, workshops and other international events to obtain first-hand information from international policy makers and leading practitioners, including APEC, IATA, ICAO, INTERPOL, WCO and TAPA – this helps to gain a comprehensive perspective of each new initiative as well as to share local concerns. In the meanwhile, we initiated some industry projects to tackle the new challenges, for example: AEO trail-run; China – Hong Kong cross border re-export cargo integrity study; Hidden dangerous goods awareness; and, Li-CAT program, initiative for enhancing safety for lithium battery product shipping via air cargo. Finally, we also partner with local academic institutes through educational and internship programs to promote supply chain security.

From your viewpoint, what are the biggest risks and challenges with lithium batteries, in the context of China – Hong Kong exports, and air cargo safety?

First of all, let me put forward a few facts that shape Hong Kong’s export industry, regarding the legal environment; re-export cross border trade model; Hong Kong being the world number one aviation logistics hub; threats of lithium batteries and products containing them; and, multi-level consolidation business model and unqualified co-loading agents.

First on the legal environment: There are two legal systems between Hong Kong and China. In the international export trade scenario, while Hong Kong is well-linked with the international legal system, but China is not. Thus, if any issue arise regarding an export consignment from China via Hong Kong to the international market, the liability will be chased back to Hong Kong only, as there is no clear cross-border jurisdiction between Hong Kong and China.

Second on the re-export cross border trade model: China has well-established manufacturing facilities next to Hong Kong, and Hong Kong has world-class finance, legal and logistics infrastructures. This has led to Hong Kong becoming one of the major hub for Chinese manufacturers. According to government statistics, over 60% of the Hong Kong export cargo originates from China. This is called “re-export cross-border cargo”.

Third, Hong Kong is the world No.1 aviation logistics hub and one of the major ports for electronics exports: For the last six years, Hong Kong has remained the top aviation logistics hub in the world, handling 4.3 million tonnes of export cargo annually. According to the Hong Kong Census & Statistics Board, the air cargo exports amounted in 2015 to 1333 billion Hong Kong $ – equals roughly 160 billion Euros. In 2015, 64% of the exports comprised electronic products amounting to an approximate value of 509 billion Hong Kong $ – 62 billion Euros. It has been previously estimated that the production of lithium batteries would increase by 1600% between years 2000 and 2020, causing a growing safety concern of cross-border transportation of lithium products between Hong Kong and China.

Fourth, threats of lithium battery and its products: Lithium batteries have many unseen dangers besides quality concerns, for example the well-known cases of Samsung Note 7 and hover boards that have caused fire or explosions while charging. If the product is packed improperly or damaged, it carries the risk of catching fire quite quickly. A poor shipment of lithium battery products may threaten life and harm the world’s aviation supply chain. The threat starts from manufacturing, moves to logistics and finally to the end-users. In Hong Kong’s situation, the lithium batteries and their products are shipped daily from China to Hong Kong by truck, and re-exported to international markets by air. It is not uncommon to find mis-declared lithium batteries or undeclared products, which is done either to save costs or due to ignorance of dangerous goods aviation transportation regulations. The risk should not be underestimated and neglected. It would not only harm the Hong Kong economy, but also the global electronics industry, next to threatening people’s lives, of course.

And fifth, multi-level consolidation business model and unqualified co-loading agents: In export trade, usually a number of stakeholders, so called multi-level consolidators, are involved, causing more difficulty in determining the accountability of stakeholders. Especially if an accident occurs, due to loopholes in the cross-border re-export regulations, tracing the accountable mainland shippers becomes difficult – and till today, there is no single successful case. The last few years have witnessed a recent rise in threats. The so-called co-loading cargo agents in China act as cargo agents for cargo source shippers, that is the manufacturers or exporters. Next, they consolidate the cargos, acting as shippers for Hong Kong cargo agents. Being familiar with the loopholes in dual jurisdictions, they try to save costs, while inducing mis-declaration or under declaration problems.

As a result, all the above factors create a perfect storm: a honey pot to smugglers and irresponsible shippers or co-loading cargo agents, who can take advantage of the cross-border re-export business model.

Well, thanks a lot Jimmy for sharing all these interesting insights. May I propose that we continue on this topic, and welcome you as the 1^st guest author for CBRA Blog, to be published during March 2017?

Sure Juha, let’s do that!

More information on the SCS Association: http://www.scsasecurity.org/

Interview with Mr. Ireland, Head of WCO’s Research Unit

February 22, 2017/in Interview, Interviews /by Vladlen Tsikolenko

Hi Robert, and thanks for joining a CBRA interview. Can you please tell first a bit about yourself: who you are and what you do?

Thanks Juha for this opportunity. I have been Head of the World Customs Organization’s Research Unit since 2009 and have lived in Brussels since 2005. I am a policy analyst by training and at the WCO I am fortunate to focus on the intriguing intersection of international trade and broader public policy matters.

What does the WCO’s Research Unit do? Are there any specific priorities for the year 2017?

The WCO Research Unit takes an inter-disciplinary approach to researching subjects that directly or indirectly relate to Customs and international trade. We have two core objectives. First, we seek to publish high-quality articles in external publications – such as the Global Trade and Customs Journal and the World Customs Journal – and in WCO publications such as the magazine WCO News. Second, we seek to bring together top academics and Customs officials at international research conferences, such as the annual PICARD Conference.

The Research Unit has tackled an array of topics in recent years, including counter-terrorism, informal trade practices, performance measurement, corruption, money laundering, the implications for Customs and international trade of global warming, the contribution of tobacco control to public health, and wildlife protection. For 2017, our specific research priorities are e-commerce and Customs practices at fragile borders.

Although cross-border e-commerce is still a small portion of international trade – and smaller than domestic e-commerce -, it continues to grow. In terms of regulation, Customs administrations are striving to strike the right balance between trade facilitation on the one hand, and revenue collection and illicit trade on the other hand, and the WCO wants to help them get there. The Research Unit’s e-commerce project will be launched in March 2017 when we will visit China to meet with representatives from Alibaba, China Customs, and other e-commerce stakeholders.

Regarding the fragile borders project, let it never be said that the Research Unit does not take hardship missions – we go where the action is. While much of the focus on the refugee crisis has been in Europe, our intent is to conduct fieldwork at the source: for instance, in the Middle East, North Africa, and West Africa, and to examine the scope of Customs work in those locales.

WCO just announced that PICARD 2017 Conference will take place in Tunis, 26-28 September this year – great location! Can you please share information about the research themes for the Tunis conference – and why were they selected?

The WCO is very grateful to Tunisia Customs for hosting the next PICARD Conference in Tunis. In February 2017, the WCO published the PICARD Call for Papers which solicits submissions on four topics: Data Analysis; Trade Facilitation; Security; and Customs-Tax Cooperation. Data analysis was selected because it is the WCO’s theme for 2017 in recognition of the crucial role it plays in the Customs context, underpinning virtually all functions of a Customs administration. The Customs-Tax Cooperation topic was selected to encourage research on the interaction between these two government functions and because approximately 25 percent of WCO Members are Revenue Authorities – administrations that merged both Customs and Tax. The other two topics – trade facilitation and security – were selected because they continue to be of great interest to the global Customs community.

Thanks a lot for these updates Robert – and see you latest in September in Tunis!

Interview with Mr. Boley, SC Johnson, Switzerland

November 17, 2016/0 Comments/in All partners, All transport modes, Authorized Economic Operator, Compliance management, Customs risks, Global, Interview, Interviews, Investigations, Manufacturer, Risk management, Risk-cluster, Supply chain, Supply chain security, TAPA, Theft, WP1 /by Vladlen Tsikolenko

17.11.2016: Today’s CBRA Interview with Mr. Bill Boley focuses on supply chain security management at SC Johnson

Hi Bill, and thanks for joining CBRA Interview, here at the TAPA EMEA Conference in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Good afternoon Juha, first I want to thank you and the CBRA team for all the great work you have done for the Supply Chain Security Community over the years. It seems that every time I attend an event CBRA is there…

We first met in 2008, and worked together on the World Bank Supply chain security guidebook, good ol’ times…. In your current job, which supply chain security standards and guidebooks your company follows?

Here at SC Johnson we actually first strive to meet the guidelines laid out in the WCO SAFE Framework of Standards. This is important for us as a global player, global citizen and manufacturer with many supply chains, to do our part in assisting Customs and Law Enforcement Agencies making the Global Supply Chain more safe and secure. At the same time, safe and secure supply chains support the overall optimisation and predictability, helping us to meet the customer and consumer demands. This is why we pursue the various AEO schemes already in place around the world, be it C-TPAT, EU AEO, or Kenyan AEO – in other words, we strive to certify so Customs can focus on the unknowns… At the warehouse level we have adapted the TAPA FSR standard as the “SCJ standard”. As a global company with many different nationalities, languages and moving parts both upstream and downstream a universal standard written for the practitioners is a key for us. It is also a requirement for our service providers and the transporters moving our product. Soon we will start to give preferential consideration to those service providers who have the TAPA TSR certification, as part of the contract award process.

What about information on actual threats and risks with your global supply chain – which sources you use for that?

As you are well aware, we are facing many threats around the world: stowaways, weapons and drug smuggling, hijackings, cyber threats particularly with the Internet of Things, and counterfeiting, just to name a few… At SC Johnson we are fortunate to have a buy-in from our C-Suite on the importance of Supply Chain Security programmes and tools we have been implementing. We have established a Global Security Operations Centre at our World Headquarters and, our Product Supply, Logistics, and Procurement Leaders around the world are very proactive on the topic of supply chain security. SCJ has actually built an own network of information providers such as BSI, IJet, OSAC, and of course Law Enforcement Agencies, as well as select Customs regimes. The TAPA IIS system, FreightWatch International, and yes, even CBRA, also feed into our information portal. Getting involved at every level to develop a community of interest on supply chain security is a key. As they say, it takes a network to defeat a network.

Can you share any stories on how these supply chain security standards and risk information have helped you to do your job as a SC Johnson supply chain security manager better?

Yes absolutely, most recently we fell victim to two separate events. One was facility related while the other was on transport. We conducted an analysis on how our mitigation measures failed, and it became evident that we lacked timely, accurate and relevant information to change our measure to adapt to the latest Modus Operandi of the criminal networks. Delivery times to our facilities, pick-ups, chain of custody, liaison with local Law Enforcement and audits of our service providers have been instrumental. In fact, just last week local Law Enforcement in Nigeria was able to interdict and recover a high value shipment, thanks to our close communication and cooperation with the Government of Nigeria.

Yesterday I briefed you about our on-going TAPA study titled “Total Cost of Cargo Theft (TCCT)”… Would your company be interested to join the study?

SC Johnson would be very receptive to taking part of this study. First, as we have suffered Supply chain losses there is a misunderstanding on what is covered by insurance or not. And, second, if we can then place a more precise value or declaration on what those stolen finished goods will cost outside of the retail value, that would be great. Loss of customers or at least their confidence in a non-delivery, recovering our full costs of production, investigative costs, etc. are just some of the cascading effects and costs we encounter.

Great news, thanks a lot Bill, for both the interview and for agreeing to join the TCCT-study! Juha.