The second meeting of National Contact Points (NCPs) for Capacity Building in the Americas and the Caribbean region (AMS) was held from 21 to 23 November 2017 in Montevideo, Uruguay. The NCPs meeting aims at deepening and updating the participants' knowledge of the WCO Capacity Building programmes and initiatives,  including enhancing the awareness of the NCPs on their role, and ways of contributing to the work of the WCO Secretariat and the Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB) in the Capacity Building domain.

This meeting served to further strengthen the network of the NCPs in the region, to clarify roles of the ROCB and the NCPs, and to strengthen cooperation between Members, the ROCB and the WCO.

During the meeting, the WCO led discussions relating to the WCO capacity building model including updates since the first meeting.  The ROCB reported on its activities, challenges and proposals while the NCPs shared their national plans covering both capacity building and training activities.  Participants further shared expertise and provided feedback to the ROCB and WCO on ways to improve the capacity building needs assessment process and communication.

The meeting was officially closed by the Director General of Uruguay Customs Mr. Enrique Canon who is also the Chair of the WCO Council.  He stressed the importance of such regional meetings and pointed out that the increase in the number of Latin American customs officials who have been elected to perform functions in the WCO represents a vote of confidence and is a product of modernization efforts of the Customs of the region.

Information on this event is available in Spanish at: https://www.aduanas.gub.uy/innovaportal/v/17897/6/innova.front/culmino-exitosamente-el-segundo-encuentro-de-referentes-de-la-orfc.html