The Regional TFA workshop meeting was hosted by the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) in Gaberone, Botswana from 20th to 23rd September, 2016. This meeting was organized by the WCO and the ROCB in partnership with the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS), and made possible by the financial support from the Department for International Development (DfID).
The workshop focused on technical issues and allowed discussions on individual TFA Articles, including discussions on legal requirements, benefits, available implementation tools and Members’ experiences. The workshop was attended participants from Customs of Members of ESA Region, as well as representatives from the WCO, WCO ESA ROCB and development Partners.
Opening remarks were delivered by Mr. B. M. Mudongo, the General Manager (Regions and Compliance), Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS), on behalf of the Commissioner General, (BURS); Mr. Larry Liza, the ROCB Director; and Patrick Gyan, the WCO ESA Regional Develoment Manager. Mr. Mudongo welcomed the participants to the workshop, noting it was a follow up of the workshop conducted in September 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He highlighted the developments have since taken place at national, regional and international levels, including the 10th Ministerial Conference (MC10) in Nairobi in December 2015, which provided a good opportunity to take stock of the work undertaken collectively by the WCO, its membership and partners in terms of support for implementation of the WTO TFA.