Praia, Cape Verde | The Minister of Finance, the Director of the National Revenue Authority, the stakeholders of Customs - both public agencies and private operators - and the WCO, met on the 28th of September 2017 at the premises of the Ministry of Finance to officially launch the publication of the report on the Time Release Study held in June 2016 at the Port of Praia, as key achievement of the WCO-WACAM Project.
The ceremony served as the opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the WCO-WACAM Project in Cape Verde. The project, funded by Sweden, effectively supported Cape Verde with the implementation of three measures of the WTO TFA, namely the establishment of the National Committee on Trade Facilitation (Article 23.2), Consultations through formal dialogue plaform (Article 2.2), and the undertaking of a Time Release Study (Article 7.6). Furthermore, the project enhanced the Customs Administration’s capacities to effectively develop and implement an innovative Stakeholder Engagement Strategy and modern Communication Plan. In this regard, a team of external evaluators has qualified the project’s support to Cape Verde as a “model of capacity-building support based on partnership and ensuring that the beneficiary has full ownership of the modernisation process”.
The successful undertaking of the Time Release Study at the Port of Praia, which benefitted from the valuable guidance of the WCO, was a clear demonstration of the enhanced competencies of the Cape Verde Customs Administration in the area of stakeholder engagement. Indeed, Customs actively engaged all the relevant stakeholders involved in the clearance of goods at the Port of Praia in the scoping of the TRS, in the implementation of the study as well as in the report drafing efforts.
This official publication of the report, which is available in Portuguese, French and English, allows Cape Verde to follow the requirements of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement related to Article 7.6. “The TRS is a fundamental tool for Cape Verde, as it provides relevant entitities involved in the goods clearance process the opportunity to measure its performance and consequently the country performance in terms of trade facilitation. The WCO pays tribute to the dedication and continouous involvement of the Cape Verde Customs Administration throughout our collaboration, without which such achievements would not had been obtained. We would like to reiterate our readiness to continue this successful partnership with Cape Verde, based on solid relationships and mutual trust”, said WCO Capacity Building Director, Mr. Ernani Checcucci, during the closing ceremony.
The Minister of Finance, Mr. Oliveira, announced that, based on the good results achieved by the TRS, Cape Verde will invest to extend the exercise to all ports of the country. He further thanked the WCO for the effectiveness and quality of its support under the WCO-WACAM Project and thanked Sweden for financing the project. The Director of the National Revenue Authority, Mrs. Spares dos Santos Vaz, expressed her administration’s interest to continue benefitting from WCO support under the project as it is now initiating the efforts to implement the recently developed Strategic Plan.
For more information about this activity or the WCO-WACAM Project in general, do not hesitate to contact the WCO-Sweden Programme Director, Mr. Richard Chopra (Richard.chopra@wcoomd.org).