The 9th Steering Committee (SC) Meeting of the WCO Project “Building Trade Capacity through Customs Modernization in the East and Southern Africa Region” which is funded by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, was hosted by the Finnish Customs from 14th to 16th March 2016, in Kuusamo, Finland. The meeting was attended by various Director Generals (or their representatives) from the region, in particular, South Africa, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mauritius and Kenya, all who have recently or currently served at the ESA Management Committee. Namibia, which had a special component of the project also participated in the meeting. Other participants included the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland, the WCO and the ESA Regional Office for Capacity Building.
The meeting reviewed progress achieved regarding the implementation of the project. It also discussed a proposed new project by Finland, aiming to progress the trade facilitation (TF) agenda, within the framework of the WCO Mercator Programme in the East and Southern Africa Region.