Following a request by the Uzbekistan State Customs Committee (Customs Administration), as part of the implementation of the regional strategy drawn up for member countries of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program, the World Customs Organization (WCO) organized a four-day National Workshop on the International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures (Revised Kyoto Convention - RKC), held at the Higher Customs Institute of Tashkent (Uzbekistan) from 24 to 27 February 2015. The National Workshop brought together nearly twenty managers and executives from the Uzbekistan Customs Administration, Ministry of Justice and Chamber of Commerce. The main objective of the Workshop was to inform stakeholders and raise their awareness of the importance and advantages of the RKC, to give participants a sound grasp of this instrument in order to expedite the country’s accession process, and to effectively prepare for implementation of this Convention as soon as possible. Participants immediately moved on to a comparative analysis of the provisions of the RKC and national legislation. During this Workshop, the Customs Administration presented, in particular, the preliminary draft Code which was currently being amended to adapt it to international standards such as the RKC.

In order to achieve the above objectives, two experts from the WCO Secretariat took part in this Workshop as facilitators and shared with participants their knowledge of the RKC and their experience as regards a comparative analysis of the differences between the RKC and national legislation. The quality of the discussions during the different parts of this Workshop highlighted the strong level of interest shown by participants in issues related to the simplification and harmonization of border procedures.

For all practical purposes, this Workshop falls within the framework of the action plans developed at the end of two Sub-Regional Seminars on the RKC held recently in Baku (Azerbaijan) and Shanghai (People’s Republic of China) with the technical support of the WCO and financial support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

This Workshop enjoyed great success and significantly enhanced Uzbekistan Customs’ understanding of the RKC provisions, especially the benefits related to accession and implementation, and the procedure for comparative analysis of the RKC provisions and national legislation. The Workshop concluded with the idea of drafting an action plan for accession to and implementation of the RKC. Uzbekistan Customs very much welcomed this timely collaboration and expressed its sincere gratitude to the WCO for all its technical assistance and capacity building support. The WCO Secretariat will continue to support Uzbekistan Customs in its modernization efforts, and particularly in the process of accession to and implementation of the RKC.