Following WCO work with the Philippines Bureau of Customs (BOC) undertaken in July 2017, the World Bank is exploring bringing several BOC initiatives under a single project. From the 9th to 20th of April 2018, WCO and World Bank representatives conducted an analysis that resulted in a report to support cooperation between the Philippines Government and the World Bank Group.

There are three objectives of the reform and modernization programme. One is to strengthen information and communication technology (ICT) architecture.  The second is to reinvigorate previous competency-based human resource management (HRM) and the third is supporting the design and development of a BOC Academy.

Within the framework of the proposed programme, each component will be implemented by BOC working groups. The committment and motivation of BOC officials that supported WCO and World Bank representatives in the analysis and reporting phase provided a sound foundation for developing partnerships and exploration of possible approaches to achieve the reform and modernization objectives.

Specific WCO analysis focused on the WCO Strategic Management Baseline Data Collection Questionnaire, WCO People Development Diagnostic Tool and the WCO Framework of Principles and Practices for Customs Professionalism tools. HRM and training and development were identified as key components for the success of both the BOC Strategic Transformation Plan 2018-2022 and the proposed reform and modernization programme. Closely linked to this component will be the upgrading of ICT Architecture, which includes a new HRM system module.