The event, which takes place in the Palace of Youth Creativity, is attended by delegates from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, experts and consultants from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Opening the event, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Anvar Asamov, noted the ongoing intensive reforms, changes and updates in the sphere of the state customs service of our republic in recent years.

It is not a secret that customs authorities had a key role at the border to protect the economic interests of countries and their citizens, while promoting development and trade.

In particular, the strengthening of trade and economic relations with neighboring and foreign countries by Uzbekistan requires further improvement, as well as simplification of customs procedures and bringing them in line with international standards.

To this end, intensive work is underway to further improve the customs legislation, in particular, to develop a new edition of the Customs Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

 The event will provide the members of the program with an update on the overall progress achieved under the CAREC program, the Integration of the CAREC Trade Program (ITPC) until 2030 and the accompanying Sliding Strategic Action Plan (SSAP); and also on new customs priority areas of each member of the program.

Also, the work program of the Customs Cooperation Committee for 2019-2021 and the proposed technical assistance of the Asian Development Bank to support the CAREC countries in implementing new priorities will be discussed and agreed.

During the meeting, the keynote speech was the information of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the “Common Information Space: The Path to Trade Facilitation”.

For reference: the Program for the Development of Regional Economic Cooperation in Central Asia (CAREC) was launched in 1997. on the initiative of the Asian Development Bank. The goal of the Program is to promote the economic development of Central Asian states by expanding regional and multilateral cooperation in several areas, one of which is the development of customs cooperation, the promotion of agreed customs reforms and the modernization of the customs control and customs clearance process.

In recent years, the Program, thanks to its goals and objectives, has generated particular interest in many countries, as a result of which the geography of the participating countries has been expanded, and the project has gained international status.

Currently, 11 countries of the region — Uzbekistan, Peoples Republic of China, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Georgia — are participating in CAREC, as well as international donor organizations: Asian Development Bank, World Bank, UN Development and Islamic Development Bank.

In 2019, the Republic of Uzbekistan chairs the CAREC program with major CAREC events in our country.

The highest body of CAREC is the annual Ministerial Conference, which is scheduled for this fall.

The order of holding in the countries of the conferences is determined in alphabetical order.

From this point of view, the 18th meeting of the Customs Cooperation Committee, which will be held June 20-21, 2019, can be considered as preparation for this prestigious event.

It is important to note that the Republic of Uzbekistan has been actively participating in the CAREC program since its launch. For the years 2002-2018 as part of CAREC, priority investment projects worth over $ 5 billion were implemented in the country.

First of all, we are talking about regional projects aimed at creating efficient transport and transit corridors, ensuring the shortest possible access of the countries of the region to the main world and regional markets.

As part of the CAREC strategy until 2020, Uzbekistan plans to implement 24 investment projects in the field of transport communications, logistics, and modernization of the customs system for a total amount of 10.6 billion US dollars.