The 60th Spanish-speaking Fellowship Programme was launched in Brussels on Monday 22 April 2013.

This Programme forms part of the work to develop the management capacities of Member administrations in support of Phase II of the Columbus Programme. It is designed to provide extremely promising young managers from Member administrations with training in supervisory and management techniques, so as to help them carry out reform and modernization within their respective administrations in a dynamic and sustainable manner.

This latest Programme brings together 13 participants who were welcomed by Mr. Mikuriya, Secretary General, World Customs Organization. This introduction serves as a prelude to a series of conferences given by WCO experts, as well as to the Leadership and Management Development Course, facilitated by three experts from Canada and the WCO Secretariat. The fellows will also benefit from a round-table discussion with the Deputy Secretary General of the WCO.

The participants will remain at WCO Headquarters until 17 May 2013 in order to prepare an in-depth study on a subject of their choice, under the supervision of a Secretariat tutor, and to make recommendations to their respective administrations for possible subsequent implementation. Lastly the participants will spend a fortnight in one of the Programme’s partner Administrations (Japan, Republic of Korea or Spain) to round off their study trip.

The Spanish-speaking Fellowship Programme is funded by the Customs Administrations of Japan, the Korea Development Fund and by the WCO.

List of countries participating in the 60th Fellowship Programme: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay and Turkey.