Commissioner of Customs & Excise Hermes Tang officiated at a ceremony today at Customs College to mark the launch of the department's recognised training programmes.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Tang said Hong Kong Customs needs to develop along the smart customs blueprint to meet the ever-changing challenges in trade facilitation and law enforcement under the context of the Belt & Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development.

Mr Tang said: “There is a need for the department to boost the talent pool.”

“Through its own quality assurance mechanism, Hong Kong Customs College will continue to design and refine its induction and in-service training programmes to ensure the officers' professionalism in taking up all sorts of challenges ahead.”

The department obtained an accreditation approval from the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic & Vocational Qualifications in December last year to include its induction programmes for Inspectors and Customs Officers in the Qualifications Register.

The two accredited programmes are the Professional Diploma in Customs Management for Inspectors and Professional Diploma in Customs Operations for Customs Officers.

The first batch of new recruits enrolled in the accredited programmes, comprising 64 Probationary Inspectors and 124 Probationary Customs Officers, also joined today's launching ceremony.

The Probationary Inspectors will graduate in August while the Probationary Customs Officers will finish the programme in May.