David M. Smith

David Smith is a very experienced, former UK Customs Officer who then worked for Crown Agents for almost twenty years in the design and delivery of customs technical assistance, reform and modernisation projects and programmes throughout the world.

While serving with HM Customs & Excise, David was responsible for a range of operational policy areas, including enforcement of prohibitions and restrictions, inter-agency cooperation and cooperation with the business sector. He also served on a number of EU policy committees and working groups in Brussels.

He then worked for Eurocustoms for four years, as a technical advisor, helping many of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe to prepare for accession to the European Union.

With Crown Agents, he has designed innovative and highly successful programmes for customs services in Europe, Africa and SE Asia, including large-scale programmes in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania, with specific focus on revenue collection and measures to prevent and detect corruption. He has managed large, multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams in the implementation of customs and revenue reform, reporting directly to senior Ministers.

He has experience of working with or for all the key players and stakeholders in customs reform including the UN, the IMF, World Bank, WCO, WTO, OECD, the EU and a number of national donors including USAID, DFID, JICA, GIZ and DANIDA.