The Regional Office for Capacity Building Asia/Pacific (ROCB AP) in cooperation with Japan Customs, under the sponsorship of CCF/Japan, organized a five-day national workshop on the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) from 31 August to 4 September 2013 in Male, Maldives. This workshop was attended by mid-level managers of Maldives Customs being in charge of RKC gap analysis and RKC implementation. Mr. Yoshihiro Kosaka, Head of ROCB AP participated in this workshop as a resource person and shared his knowledge on the RKC and experience of capacity building. He also assisted Maldives Customs in organizing consultation sessions with stakeholders.

In line with the Regional Strategic Plan 2012-2014, the WCO secretariat and the ROCB AP has been assisting Customs Administrations in acceding to the RKC with a view to meeting the target of having 18 Contracting Parties by June 2014. In response to the request from the Commissioner General of Maldives Customs in June 2013, ROCB-AP decided to offer this timely technical assistance and managed to secure the support from CCF/Japan for this workshop.

This workshop achieved great success. It greatly improved understanding of Maldives Customs of the RKC, particularly of its benefits. The initial gap analysis and the follow up activities were smoothly conducted and identified. Maldives Customs highly appreciated this timely assistance. The WCO secretariat, the ROCB AP and Japan Customs would continue to support Maldives Customs to join and prepare for the implementation of the RKC.