East and Southern Africa Regional Meeting

Uganda, 20-22 May 2010

Report

At the invitation of the Vice Chair for the WCO ESA region, Commissioner Peter Malinga of the Uganda Revenue Authority, WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya visited Kampala (Uganda) to participate in a meeting of the region's Governing Council.

The meeting adopted a number of decisions on governance, capacity building and other regional issues, including the annual activity plan of the Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB) in Nairobi. Regional Heads of Customs commended the new dynamism of the WCO Secretariat in providing best practices and other assistance to help Members implement WCO standards and the vision embodied in the WCO Customs in the 21st Century strategic policy.

The meeting discussed the priorities of capacity building with a concrete time line.They include accession to revised Kyoto Convention, risk management, the single window, revenue and IPR protection. In this respect participants also expressed their interest in Globally Network Customs in a manner inclusive to developing countries, and the Customs-Business Partnership aimed at establishing an authorized economic partnership.

Secretary General Mikuriya also met Minister of State for investment, the Hon. Aston Karaja, to discuss the contribution of Customs to economic development. Having started his career as a Customs officer, the Minister expressed his strong support for Customs which is faced with a changing trade landscape.