The General Secretary of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Kunio Mikuriya, arrived in Uzbekistan on an official visit, Trend reports via Uzbek media.

The main purpose of the Secretary General’s visit is to involve Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan, in the WCO’s activities by participating in the Organization’s activities, assisting customs services in improving their capacity in simplifying customs and trade procedures, and strengthening regional cooperation.

WCO Secretary General held meeting with the Chairman of Uzbek State Customs Committee Murotjon Azimov, where they discussed in detail various issues related to the international cooperation of Uzbek customs authorities in the field of customs.

During the meeting, Secretary General of the WCO noted that he was closely following the ongoing customs reforms in Uzbekistan. The system of double corridor introduced at all international airports of the country was especially emphasized. Its main purpose is to simplify customs control, launch an automated risk management system, open borders separating Uzbekistan from neighboring countries, in particular, the resumption of work at several checkpoints.

Uzbek customs service is one of the most important state institutions that protect the economic sovereignty of the country and holds one of the priority places in system of foreign and domestic policy of the state.

At the same time, the main objectives of the customs policy are the ensuring of effective customs control and regulation of goods exchange in the customs territory of the country, stimulating the development of economy, and protecting the internal market. The main attention at the meeting was paid to the further development of cooperation of Uzbekistan with the World Customs Organization and foreign countries in the customs sphere.

Currently, 182 countries in the world are members of the World Customs Organization which controls about 98 percent of international trade.

Uzbekistan joined the Convention establishing the Customs Cooperation Council on July 28, 1992. The country has actively participated in the activities of the World Customs Organization since then, and is also a party to more than 20 international conventions on customs issues.

It should be noted that agreements have been signed with such countries as Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus to create simplified customs corridors for the implementation of customs control for certain goods. In order to strengthen bilateral cooperation between customs services, proposals were made to 22 countries around the world on agreements developed by the Customs Service of Uzbekistan.