Improving the Border Agency Cooperation

Among the OIC Member States for Facilitating Trade

side of the border but as chemicals at the Malaysian side. Singapore customs found out that the

traffickers exported liquor from Singapore under a name of a chemical company that did not

quite match with the exported liquor. The Singapore customs officers tipped their Malaysian

colleagues about this suspicious liquor shipment. This piece of intelligence allowed the

Malaysian customs officers to intercept the smuggling attempt and seize the contraband liquor.

Malaysia also participates in the UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme (CCP). The

programme involves Inter-agency Joint Port Control Units (JPCUs), the purpose of which is to

facilitate exchange of intelligence for risk assessment of maritime shipping containers. The

exchanged intelligence is compared against cargo manifests to identify and target high-risk

containers. Due to limited resources, prioritisation of customs controls is crucial for ensuring

adequate security in maritime supply chains. At the Malaysian sea ports, customs inspect

physically only 1 % of cargo that the risk assessment system flags as high-risk. Around 15 % of

shipments are subject to document checks. The remaining 85 % goes to the green lane.

Cooperative fight against trafficking in pharmaceuticals and controlled substances

Malaysia requires permits for imports and exports of pharmaceuticals and other controlled

substances

161

. The Malaysian border control agencies take the enforcement of unregistered

pharmaceuticals and controlled substances seriously, and they are continuously looking for

better techniques to detect false customs declarations, licenses and other documentation that

traffickers use to beat border controls.

Malaysian and Thai health authorities cooperate mainly at the annual meeting of the Malaysia-

Thailand Border Health Goodwill Committee. The meeting typically concerns harmonisation of

control measures at both sides of the border as well as exchange of information and best

practices. At the Southern border, Malaysian and Singapore health authorities cooperate under

a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)

162

and the three main UN conventions

(1961/1971/1988) that require sharing of import and export approvals of controlled

substances. This sharing seeks to ensure the legitimacy of trade and prevent the diversion of

controlled substances into unregulated black markets. Moreover, the Malaysian National

Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency is currently negotiating MoU’s with the Drug

Administration of Vietnam, SwissMedic, China State Food and Drug Administration and the

Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in efforts to enhance technical cooperation in

pharmaceutical regulatory affairs.

163

Malaysian health authorities are currently engaged in projects for strengthening domestic and

cross-border cooperation. One of the projects seeks to upgrade the existing ICT infrastructure

for faster electronic information exchange between competent authorities, both locally and

internationally. The health authorities are also looking for ways to share responsibilities, to

establish a single point of contact for faster and more efficient communication and to support

investigation and prosecution of cross-border crimes. Critical to better performance is further

collaboration between the Royal Malaysian Customs and the Pharmaceutical Services Division

161 As defined by three main UN conventions: the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, the Convention on

Psychotropic Substances of 1971, and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and

Psychotropic Substances of 1988.

162 The Memorandum of Understanding For Cooperation in the field of Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs (2011) is signed

by the Malaysian National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) and the Health Science Authority (HSA) of Singapore.

163

E-mail correspondence with the Malaysian Ministry of Health