The second WCO COPES Regional Seminar was held in Baku, Azerbaijan from 24 to 26 November 2015.

The event took place at the Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB) and was organized in conjunction with the ROCB for Europe and the Azerbaijan State Customs Committee.

Major-General Guloglan Muradli delivered the opening address to 19 participants from the Customs Administrations of eight different countries: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

The seminar took place as part of the second phase of the COPES Programme which aims to further training opportunities on the importance of collecting evidence for investigation and prosecution purposes. The seminar was delivered in English and Russian to a group of managers and field officers, who were able to familiarize themselves with the objectives of the programme while getting involved in this highly interactive training session.

At the closing ceremony, Mr. Roger Hermann, Head of the ROCB for Europe and Major-General Muradli commended the content, structure and format of the training session. Major-General Muradli voiced his hope that a national COPES workshop would be held in Azerbaijan in the near future, bringing together Customs officials, enforcement specialists and prosecution authority representatives.

For further information please contact Mr. Gilles Thomas, WCO COPES Programme Coordinator, at the following e-mail address: Gilles.Thomas@wcoomd.org .