Under the auspices of the West African Customs Administration Modernization (WACAM) Project financed by Sweden, the World Customs Organization (WCO) provides tailor-made support to Guinea in building capacities to effectively engage with stakeholders.

In the framework of this support, a training on stakeholder engagement was jointly delivered from 05 to 08 March 2018 in Conakry, Guinea, by the WCO and the World Bank. The aim of the training was to improve Guinea Customs’ capacities to engage with stakeholders, as part of its efforts to implement provisions of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).

The workshop, which involved the participation of 20 officials, including 3 women, comprised presentations and group exercises dealing with consultation processes in order to highlight and reinforce the importance of engaging with relevant stakeholders and thereby enhance Guinea Customs officers’ capacities to successfully conduct consultations.        

The establishment of a Consultative Committee at the Port of Conakry was one of the recommendations of the workshop. The purpose of establishing a committee would be to support Guinea’s government commitment to ensure compliance with TFA provisions, including those related to Article 2, and to initiate a unique platform for dialogue and coordination on trade facilitation reforms.

The Director General of Guinea Customs expressed his sincere appreciation to the donor, the WCO and the World Bank for their support to Guinea’s efforts in the implementation of TFA provisions.  He emphasized the importance of this training for the administration, and regarded the organization of the workshop as a critical step in improving the involvement of relevant stakeholders as part of the effective implementation of TFA provisions and in view of the increased volume of international cross-border trade.

For more information about the WCO-WACAM Project, please refer to the Director of the WCO-Sweden Programme. M. Richard Chopra, Richard.Chopra@wcoomd.org