Strengthening the knowledge of the Port Control Units in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in effective container/cargo control

UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia conducted a Specialized condensed training for the officers from the State Customs Service under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic and the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, members of the Port Control Units (PCUs) in Bishkek from 24 to 28 February 2020 under UNODC-World Customs Organization (WCO) Global Container Control Programme (CCP). The training is part of ongoing CCP capacity building activities aimed at assisting Central Asian countries to improve their risk management, supply chain security and trade facilitation in seaports, land-borders and airports to prevent the cross-border movement of illicit goods.

The training delivered by the experienced UNODC and WCO trainers covered a wide range of topics on Customs control including risk management, risk indicators, drugs and precursors, anti-corruption measures, seal tampering, intellectual property rights, etc. Within practical part of the training the participants learned the case studies and worked with live shipping documents to identify customs violations as well as obtained necessary skills to use secure communication tool ContainerComm.

CCP has established a number of dedicated Port Control Units in Central Asia that are staffed, trained and equipped to undertake the systematic profiling and inspection of high-risk containers with minimum disruption to legitimate trade. Participation of PCU members from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in the training provided a good opportunity to promote practical cooperation and information exchange to detect and suppress movements of illicit goods in the region within the framework CCP Inter-Regional Network of Customs Authorities and PCUs. The Memorandum of Understanding on establishing the Inter-Regional Network was signed by the Heads of Customs Administration of Afghanistan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan on 22 May 2019 in Tashkent.

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