6th Meeting of the MENA Regional Training Group,
RTC Alexandria, 25-26 March 2012
Following the recommendations of the thirty-fifth meeting of Directors General of Customs in the region of North Africa, Near and Middle East (MENA) and those of the capacity building meetings of the World Customs Organization (WCO), the sixth meeting of the MENA Regional Training Group in charge of setting up the regional training action plan was held at the RTCs of Alexandria (Egypt), 25 and 26 March 2012, with the participation of representatives of the Vice-Chair (Morocco), ROCB (Abu Dhabi), the three RTC in the region (Riyadh, Beirut and Alexandria) and the WCO.
This working group, established following a recommendation of the twenty-seventh meeting of Directors General of Customs of the MENA region, has committed to develop a regional action plan for 2012-2013, while emphasizing the need to work with the ROCB and the regional Vice Chair for implementing the envisaged activities.
The Participants have followed the guidelines of the WCO in terms of Regional Training, by adhering to the different standards and instruments of capacity building. It was concluded that under the supervision of the Vice-Chair, the ROCB would coordinate the regional training activities which would be delivered by the RTCs.
At this meeting, it was agreed to:
- a Establish a framework (terms of reference, TOR) for the Regional Training group, in accordance with WCO objectives and standards, which shall be submitted to Directors General of Customs in their next meeting in June 2012,
- a Propose a regional training action plan according to WCO working methods and timelines,
- a Use the experts already accredited by the WCO in the region in training activities while cooperating to have other Arabic-speaking accredited experts,
- a Ensure adherence of the Regional Training Group to the WCO capacity building operational strategy in terms of training,
- a Improve coordination between the ROCB and the RTCs and promote the exchange of experiences among customs administrations in the region.
The WCO pays particular attention to the development of performance criteria to ensure a regional training of quality and also to the promotion of interregional cooperation based on good practices in training.