On May 3, Mr. Zou Zhiwu, Vice Minister of the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) attended the 16th China-ASEAN Customs Consultation at the Meeting of the ASEAN Directors-General of Customs in Malaysia.

Vice Minister Zou introduced the institutional reform of China Customs and the progress of the bilateral cooperation since the last meeting. He also exchanged opinions and reached consensus with ASEAN Member States on the issues including promoting to sign the relevant China-ASEAN Customs Cooperation Documents for the new era, developing the customs liaison mechanism of the “Belt and Road”, strengthening law enforcement and capacity building cooperation.

During his stay in Malaysia, Vice Minister Zou met with Mr. Subromaniam Tholasy, Director General of Royal Malaysian Customs Department, Mr. Ho Chee Pong, Director General of Singapore Customs, and Mr. Kyaw Htin, Director General of Myanmar Customs Department. The parties actively evaluated bilateral relations and customs cooperation, as well as expressed opinions and reached consensus on the following issues: deepen the customs cooperation under the framework of the "Belt and Road" initiative, jointly establish the "Southern Corridor" with Singapore Customs, strengthen law enforcement cooperation against solid waste smuggling and drugs, promote "Authorized Economic Operator" (AEO ) mutual recognition and its efficiency, establish twinning customs cooperation mechanisms among important port customs, push forward “Single Window” cooperation, explore the possibility of establishing customs cooperation working group under the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism, etc. During the meeting, Vice Minister Zou also met with representatives from the US-ASEAN Business Council to exchange views on cross-border e-commerce.