The 57th Spanish-speaking Fellowship Programme opened at the Headquarters of the WCO in Brussels on Monday, 7 May 2012.

This Programme forms part of the work to develop the management capacities of WCO Member administrations in support of Phase II of the Columbus Programme. It is designed to provide extremely promising young managers from Customs 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 Sergio Mujica, Deputy Secretary General of the WCO. This introduction serves as a prelude to a series of workshops given by WCO experts, as well as to a seven-day Leadership and Management Development Course, facilitated by two experts from the WCO. The fellows also benefited from a round-table discussion with the Deputy Secretary General during their first day at the Secretariat.

The participants will remain at WCO Headquarters until 1 June 2012 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 Republic of Korea and the WCO.

List of participating countries:

· Argentina

· Bolivia

· Chile

· Colombia

· Costa Rica

· Ecuador

· El Salvador

· Georgia

· Guatemala

· Mexico

· Paraguay

· Peru

· Uruguay