Regional integration: a key strategy for accelerating economic growth and competitiveness through increased trade.
The WCO Regional Integration Conference will explore the challenges that Customs and other border agencies face in regional integration projects, bringing together practitioners that faced these challenges and surmounted them.
The Regional Integration Conference will focus on a range of regional-integration-related issues, including priorities, challenges and ways forward. The Conference will also address regional integration in the context of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, the use of international standards, and capacity building support. In addition, topics such as regional risk management, information exchange, interoperability, single window, coordinated border management and transit will be discussed.
Invitation letters to attend the WCO Regional Integration Conference have been sent to all WCO Members, Observers and international organisations involved in regional integration efforts with information about registration using the WCO on-line registration system. Please consult your usual contact points within your country or organisation concerning WCO matters for more information.
The WCO Regional Integration Conference is held at the start of the 2015
WCO Knowledge Academy for Customs and Trade. Anyone who registers for the
Knowledge Academy is automatically registered for the Regional Integration
Conference.
The Conference itself is free of charge. Should you wish to participate only in the Regional Integration Conference and you are not a Member of the WCO or an official Observer, please send an e-mail to: regional_integration_conference@wcoomd.org.
Draft Agenda Regional integration conference Brussels, WCO Headquarters 15-16 June 2015 |
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Day 1 |
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08:45 – 09:30 |
Arrival of participants and registration |
09:30 – 09:40 |
Opening Masters of Ceremony: Ms. Karolyn Salcedo and Ms. Hermie George, WCO Secretariat
Opening address: Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, WCO Secretary General |
09:40 – 11:00 |
Session 1: Regional Integration: Stages, Priorities and Challenges |
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Moderator: Mr. Theo Hesselink, WCO Secretariat |
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Mr. Gonzalo Pereira, Director General Customs, Chile, Pacific Alliance |
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Ms. Dagmar Hertova, Economic Affairs Officer, UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) |
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Mr. El Aid Mahsoussi, Executive President, Agadir Technical Unit (ATU) |
11:00 – 11:20 |
Coffee and networking break |
11:20 – 13:00 |
Session 2: Regional integration - Global connectivity at regional level Panel discussion on the use of international standards, instruments and tools in regional integration |
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Moderator: Mr. Erich Kieck, WCO Secretariat |
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Mr. Rajendran Sabaratnam, Additional Director General, Sri Lanka Customs |
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Mr. Takashi Nakao, Deputy Director, Customs and Tariff Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Japan |
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Mr. Frank Janssens, Head of Unit of the Customs Business, Project and Data Management Unit, EU TAXUD |
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Ms. Lan Hu, Director, General Administration of Customs, P. R. China |
13:00 |
Conference Group Photo |
13:00 – 15:00 |
Lunch and networking break |
15:00 – 16:00 |
Session 3: Regional integration - Mercator Programme – technical assistance for trade facilitation |
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Moderator: Ms. Milena Budimirovic, WCO Secretariat |
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Mr. Ali Ibn Abi Talib Mahmoud, Ambassador (currently senior cooperation specialist in the cooperation and integration department) Islamic Development Bank |
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Mr. Souleymane Sangare, Director Regional Office for Capacity Building, West and Central Africa (ROCB-WCA) |
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Mr. Sishir Kumar Dhungana, Director General of Customs, Nepal |
16:00 – 16:20 |
Coffee and networking break |
16:20 – 18:00 |
Session 4: A regional approach to risk management |
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Moderator: Mr. Sergio Mujica, WCO Deputy Secretary General |
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Mr. Enrique Canon, Director General, Uruguay Customs |
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Mr. Richard Chopra, Programme Manager, Capacity Building, WCO AND Mr. J. Wakoli Wambati, Regional Project Manager WCO-EAC Customs for Regional East Africa Trade Project |
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Mr. A. Umut Ergezer, Technical Adviser CEFTA Secretariat |
18:00 |
Cocktail hosted by Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, Secretary General, WCO |
Day 2 |
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09:00 – 10:30 |
Session 5: Use of IT - Information exchange, interoperability and regional Single Windows |
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Moderator: Ms. Heike Barczyk, WCO Secretariat |
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Mr. Donald Tan, WCO Secretariat |
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Mr. Rob Van Kuik, Counsellor Tax Policy Directorate, the Netherlands AND AND |
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Ms. Ebale Nguessan Yvonne Epse Niambe, Deputy Director of Conditional Relief Procedures, Head of the Interconnection Project, Côte d’Ivoire |
10:30 – 11:00 |
Coffee and networking break |
11:00 – 12:30 |
Session 6: Coordinated Border Management |
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Moderator: Mr.
Dmitry Subochev |
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Mr. Andrey Avramenko, Specialist Expert, Eurasian Economic Commission |
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Mr. Gaozhang Zhu, WCO Secretariat |
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Ms. Elsie Mwachande, First Secretary, Embassy of Malawi in Brussels |
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Mr. Pierre Paquet, Counsellor (Border Services), Mission of Canada to the European Union |
12:30 – 14:30 |
Lunch and networking break |
14:30 – 16:00 |
Session 7: Transit and other solutions to remove non-harmonised trade barriers |
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Moderator: Ms. Minette Libom Li Likeng, WCO Regional Vice Chair for West and Central Africa and Director General Cameroon Customs |
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Mr. Toshihiko Osawa, WCO Secretariat |
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Mr. Kenneth Bagamuhunda, Director of Customs, East African Community (EAC) Secretariat, |
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Mr. Mehmet Ali Oran, European Union Expert, Ministry of Customs and Trade, Turkey |
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Ms. Dominique Janssens, Executive Officer, German Customs |
16:00 – 16:30 |
Closing Closing remarks: Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, WCO Secretary General |