The 2nd Conference of the WCO European Region Heads of
Customs
Almaty, 20-21 January 2005
On 20-21 January
2005 Almaty hosted the 2nd Conference of the World Customs
Organization European Region Heads of Customs. Directors General and experts of
Customs Administrations of 37 states, the European Commission, as well as the
representatives of the Embassies and international organizations in the
Republic of Kazakhstan participated in the Conference.
The Deputy
Prime-Minister of the Republic
of Kazakhstan Mr. Akhmetzhan Yesimov opened the
Conference. He read the welcome address of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mr. Nursultan
Nazarbayev to the participants of the Conference.
The Vice-Minister –
Chairman of Customs Control Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mr. Berdybek
Saparbayev gave the presentation “Customs Service of
Kazakhstan – the modern model of customs in the Central Asian region”.
The WCO Secretary General Mr.
Michel Danet and the Chairperson of the WCO Finance
Committee Robert Lussi presented the Report on the
Policy Commission’s 52nd Session.
The key issues
discussed at the Conference were Integrated border
management (combating of terrorism and major transnational crime, combating of
the traffic in heroin from Central Asia) and
Capacity building.
The representatives
of the European Commission and the customs services of Poland and Italy made
the presentations about integrated border management, the Czech Republic –
regarding the results of the European Championship of Customs Searching Dogs,
Sweden, Norway, Turkey, U.K. and Serbia – about capacity building.
The agenda issues
were discussed in details and with great interest: simplification, unification
and transparency of customs procedures, international trade facilitation,
effective model of customs and business interaction. It was emphasized that
interference of the customs service into the process of foreign trade should be
minimized and meet the mutual interests of the state and the business communities.
Great attention was paid to the issues of organizing close cooperation between
the customs services for enhancing foreign trade potential, customs capacity
building and consolidating the efforts in combating narcotraffic
and terrorism.
The participants of
the Conference drew the conclusion about necessity to unify the methods of
combating illegal traffic in drugs and terrorism, to coordinate actions on the
national and regional levels. Cooperation of the customs administrations on the
border should be enhanced by application of such initiatives as “green
corridor”, by strengthening the interaction with other border services and
ensuring compatibility and interoperability of IT systems.
The delegates
visited the regional WCO Dog Training Centre and get acquainted with its work.
In the framework of
the Conference the Ceremony of awarding
the winners of competition “Professionals of foreign trade” took place.
The participants of the Conference expressed gratitude to the customs
service of the Republic
of Kazakhstan for
excellent organization of the Conference.
