Promoting the Network of Port Control Units in Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Georgia

A series of exchange visits was organized in August 2016 by the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia for the officials from Port Control Units of Azerbaijan and Tajikistan to Georgia within the framework of the UNODC-WCO Global Container Control Programme.  

The objective was to familiarize with the operation of the PCUs in Georgia and promote regional cooperation among CCP participating states on container control. The mission was supported by the Customs Department of the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia.

The delegations from Azerbaijan and Tajikistan composed of officers from the Customs Administrations and the Drug Control Agency visited operational Port Control Units at Tbilisi dry port and Poti seaport and "Red bridge" border crossing point and met with their counterparts from the Customs Department of the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance and the Patrol Police Department and Central Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.

The exchange visit provided Government officials with the unique opportunity to learn Georgian best practices in the profiling and search techniques as well as identifying and inspecting high-risk containers. During the mission, participating delegations highlighted the need of collaborative approach in identifying high-risk consignments and worked out concrete steps for developing joint operations among PCUs in the region.

Mr. Samson Uridia, Head of Department for International Relations, Revenue Service Customs and Tax Administration emphasized the importance of such exchange visits for strengthening collaboration between neighboring countries in the area of customs control.

The donors for the CCP Regional Segment are the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), the Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) Program, as well as the Government of Japan.