A joint IRU – Asian Development Bank (ABD) workshop took place last week to advance digital TIR for the Shymkent-Tashkent-Khujand Economic corridor (STKEC) connecting Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and to expand digitalisation in transit to the whole region.
The workshop, held virtually, brought together more than 80 people from customs authorities and national TIR associations from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The participants from the STKEC countries shared their learnings from the successful digital TIR project currently running along the corridor.
Authorities from Kyrgyzstan, from just beyond the STKEC area, learnt more about the project and noted their intention to extend the digital TIR corridor into their own territory.
Attendees discussed how increased transparency with digital TIR is benefiting regional trade and how TIR Green Lanes will contribute to even further security and facilitation, improving transit time at border crossings.
At the workshop, ADB representatives said that digitalisation remains one of their key priorities, supporting more efficient trade and transport, especially alongside TIR as a driving force to improve cross-border procedures.
The ADB hopes that digital TIR will attract new operators to the TIR system, which is more cost effective, simpler and more transparent for customs.
Digital TIR projects, such as the one in the SKTEC region, prepare countries for smooth transition towards implementation of eTIR based on Annex 11 of the TIR Convention, which entered into force earlier this year.