WCO and Finland sign multi-year capacity building agreement for the East and Southern Africa region

Brussels, 8 September 2011

Following an announcement by the Finnish delegation during the June 2011 WCO Council Sessions, on 8 September the WCO and Finland signed a multi-year agreement on a capacity building project for the East and Southern Africa (ESA) region, that will be funded by the Finnish government to a tune of 4 million euro.

The Project was jointly developed by the WCO Secretariat and Finnish Customs in close cooperation with the Members of the ESA region. It will focus on five components: Leadership and Management Development; regional roll-out of the WCO nCEN system; Coordinated Border Management; support for the Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB) situated in Nairobi; and some country-specific support for Namibia.

"This project is an ideal opportunity for the region to benefit in a sustainable way over many years from support in key areas such as Customs Modernization," said Secretary General of the WCO, Kunio Mikuriya, during the course of the signing ceremony. He also thanked Finland, on behalf of the global Customs Community, for their generous contribution.

Finland was represented by H.E. Per-Mikael Engberg, Ambassador of Finland to Belgium, and Tapani Erling, the Finnish Director General of Customs.

The first meeting of the Project Steering Group will take place in Nairobi from 11-12 October which will especially address the work plan for the first year of the project, and the official launch ceremony is scheduled for 13 October.