From 27 to 29 June 2016, Cameroon Customs, the current Vice-Chair for the WCA region, played host to Côte d’Ivoire Customs and the WCO Secretariat in order to plan for the handover to Ivorian Customs in its capacity as the new regional Vice-Chair. Côte d’Ivoire’s term of office will take effect in the margins of the 127th/128th WCO Council Sessions, held 14th to 16th July 2016 in Brussels.
The informal meeting, opened by Mr. Edwin Nuvaga Fongod, Director General of Cameroon Customs, was held at Customs headquarters in Yaoundé and enabled the Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire delegations to discuss the Vice-Chair’s role and mission as well as the region’s top priorities, which the new Vice-Chair will have to make its own.
These priorities include management of the WCA Regional Fund, supervision of the regional structures and organization of a number of statutory meetings and conferences in the region, in particular the WCA Committee of Experts, the WCA Conference of Directors General of Customs and the Regional Donor Conference.
The WCO Secretariat took the opportunity to thank the outgoing Vice-Chair for its extraordinary commitment over the past two years and to wish the new Vice-Chair every success for its forthcoming term of office.