Establishing a New Port Control Unit on the Kazakh-Chinese Border

On 12 February 2018, as a part of the UNODC-WCO (World Customs Organization) Global Container Control Programme (CCP), the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia launched a two-week Theoretical training for Customs officers from the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the "Altynkol" dry port on Kazakh-Chinese border.

The training is a part of a series of capacity building measures that will contribute to the establishment of a Port Control Unit (PCU) at the "Altynkol" dry port of Kazakhstan. The Unit will be staffed and equipped to undertake the systematic profiling and inspection of high risk containers with minimum disruption to legitimate trade. Trained officers will represent the core part of the PCU.

During the training, experienced WCO experts shared their knowledge on a wide range of international legal instruments pertaining to drugs and crime, information sources, risk analysis and other profiling techniques, cargo inspection, information exchange mechanisms, post seizure investigations and trade facilitation. The training also included the use of internet as an important information source.

During the opening ceremony attended by Mr. Madi Bazarov, the Head of the "Altynkol" customs post , and Mr. Andrew R. Chilcoat, the U.S. Export Control & Border Security Advisor in Kazakhstan, Mr. Batyr Geldiyev the CCP Regional Programme Coordinator, stressed that "CCP is uniquely placed to assist Governments to create sustainable enforcement structures in selected sea and dry ports in order to minimize the risk of shipping containers being exploited for illicit trafficking of goods and transnational organized crime, whilst facilitating legal trade."

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