THE WCO/AEO GLOBAL CONFERENCE OFFICIALLY UNVEILED IN UGANDA

Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has officially unveiled the 4th World Customs Organisation (WCO) Authorised Economic Operators (AEO) Global Conference.

Scheduled for March 14th-16, 2018, it will be held at Kampala Serena Conference Center

Themed ‘Promotion of Mutual Recognition of AEOs to strengthen and Secure Global Trade’ the conference is expected draw over 1000 delegates from over 169 countries.

The trade facilitation meeting follows similar conferences held in 2012, 2014 and 2016 in Seoul, Korea, Madrid-Spain and Cancun, Mexico respectively.

It will put emphasis on AEO, a trade facilitation initiative that offers compliant importers preferential treatment. Also on the line-up will be mutual recognition agreements.

At a press launch in Kampala recently, Acting Commissioner General, Patrick Mukiibi said hosting such a big delegation would be a privilege and an honour.     

Stressing the importance of accreditation to AEO, he stated, “…many benefits that accrue to you as an AEO member including cost cutting, faster clearance, recognition at different levels, faster resolution of challenges met along the clearance process.

The benefits, he told reporters and companies already on the program, would ultimately lead to increase in importers’ revenue.

Until recently, there were a total of 36 AEOs involved in various customs activities like importing and clearing and forwarding

Commissioner Customs, Dicksons Kateshumbwa, who was among the people that made a pitch for Uganda stated, “Uganda happens to be the country with the most matured AEO program on the African continent. We are very proud of this.” 

“The AEO conference raises Uganda’s profile globally and is an opportunity to showcase our country and opportunity to have good news about us. It gives us an opportunity to create a symbiotic relationship between the institution and importers.” 

Assistant Commissioner Public & Corporate Affairs, Vincent Seruma told participants that the conference would be an opportunity to showcase “what we are doing in the space of global trade facilitation and we look forward to learning what is happening in other countries,”

From the tourism perspective, Uganda Tourism Board boss, Stephen Asiimwe elaborated how Uganda would tap into this opportunity.

“We are excited because tourism has emerged as the number one foreign exchange earner in Uganda with close to US$ 1.4 billion currently,” Asiimwe stated.

Citing the over 1,075 bird species, he argued that the visitors would have plenty to see namely Kampala nightlife, historical/religious sites, national parks, game reserves, traditional markets and boat rides/trips including Uganda’s popular hospitality.   

The press launch doubled as the certificate handover to 28 newly-accredited AEOs. Of these, 15 joined the national programme while 13 joined the existing forty six (46) AEOs on the East African regional programme that currently enjoy mutual recognition benefits across the region.

Apart from AEO, Uganda has implemented the other trade facilitation initiatives  such as the Single Customs Territory, One Stop Border Post (where goods and passengers processed once at borders), Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System, (used to track cargo along the Northern Corridor in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda), Document Processing Centre (coordinated processing of all clearances through the centre) and the Uganda Electronic Single Window (which offers a platform in which parties involved in international trade can lodge standardized information and documents at a single point to fulfil all import, export and transit related regulatory requirements).

Link:https://www.ura.go.ug/readMore.do?contentId=999000000001172&type=TIMELINE

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