At the invitation of Mr. Kristian Vanderwaeren, Director General of Belgian Customs, WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya attended the Belgian Customs School diploma award ceremony for 30 Customs officers from eight French-speaking African countries, held at the Belgian Ministry of Finance on 2 July.

In his address, Secretary General Mikuriya congratulated the 30 African Customs officers for completing the nine-month course, stressing that human resource development is at the core of capacity building.  He also expressed his gratitude to Belgium Customs for providing the basis for Customs cooperation, as training is one of the best ways to establish a strong network between Customs officers of different nationalities.  This network, he added, includes the WCO which also formed part of the course through visits and presentations.  Dr. Mikuriya thanked the course organizers and tutors, especially Ms. Chantal Criquillion of Belgian Customs, who has been in charge of this training programme for several years and is due to retire shortly.

Ambassadors and Directors General of Customs of eight African countries, namely Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo (Republic of the), Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea and Togo attended the ceremony in Belgium.