Five Revenue Authorities of East Africa, namely Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, gathered in Zanzibar, Tanzania on 29 May 2018 for the first Regional Joint Coordinating Committee (RJCC) meeting of their newly launched “Project on Capacity Development for Trade Facilitation and Border Control in East Africa”.
This Project was launched by the five East African Community (EAC) Partner States with the support jointly extended by the WCO and JICA and aims at improving the efficiency of border procedures and enhancing border control in East Africa. Through this new Project, the five East African Revenue Authorities will work together on (1) effective One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) operation, and (2) Customs capacity building on three areas, namely (i) risk management (RM), (ii) post clearance audit (PCA), and (iii) Program Global Shield (PGS).
The meeting was hosted by the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and was attended by the Commissioners General, Commissioners Customs and other senior officials from the Revenue Authorities of EAC Partner States, EAC Secretariat, WCO, JICA and Japan Customs. In this meeting, Commissioners reviewed the initial progress made in the first six month of the Project through the collaborative work of the five Revenue Authorities with the support jointly extended by the WCO and JICA that include the contribution to the WCO global AEO conference, risk management fact-finding missions, and PGS awareness raising seminar. Commissioners recognized the good progress made for the effective implementation of the Project and commended the efforts made by the parties concerned while expressing their interest on the use of technologies to complement the improved knowledge of staffs and to further enhance their frontline operation.
At the end of the meeting, Commissioners endorsed the report to monitor the progress of the Project and the future work plan while expressing their commitment to provide their utmost support for the Project in particular on the utilization of Master Trainers developed in the region for more sustainable and self-contained training delivery through the preceding Project.
The WCO and JICA reaffirmed their commitment and support for the Project through the WCO/JICA Joint Project towards more sustainable economic and social prosperities in the region.