On February 15-16 this year, the Hyatt Regency Tashkent Hotel hosted a regional event on electronic exchange of certificates of origin, organized within the framework of the Ready4Trade Central Asia project.

For reference: Ready4Trade Central Asia is a four—year project funded by the European Union and implemented by the International Trade Center in close cooperation with national partners. The project aims to contribute to the overall sustainable and inclusive economic development of Central Asia by stimulating intraregional and international trade in the countries of the region. The beneficiaries of the project are Governments, small and medium-sized business, in particular enterprises headed by women, and business support organizations.

The event was attended by government representatives and specialists on certification of origin of goods from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as experts from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the International Trade Center (ITC).

Representatives of the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan noted the importance of digitalization of trade operations and the introduction of paperless trade as one of the key areas contributing to the acceleration of foreign trade procedures and simplification of border crossing, as well as the development of trade in general.

Within the framework of the event, experts of the International Chamber of Commerce noted that the initiative to introduce the procedure for the mutual application of electronic certification systems within the countries of Central Asia is aimed at promoting cross-border electronic commerce and promoting the creation of a digital trading ecosystem at the regional level.

During the thematic sessions of the event, representatives of authorized bodies and relevant departments of Central Asia had the opportunity to exchange experience on maintaining the national procedure for certification of origin of goods and discuss issues of further implementation of innovative digital technologies in this area.

The parties expressed interest in joint work between representatives of the involved agencies to study the best practices and identify existing shortcomings in the process of electronic certification of origin of goods in order to further develop recommendations on simplifying trade procedures in mutual trade in the Central Asian region.

The purpose of the introduction of electronic exchange of certificates of origin is to increase the efficiency of requesting, processing, issuing and accepting certificates of origin at the borders, which will reduce the time required for enterprises to comply with border formalities and complete the export procedure, as well as strengthen the security of these processes. In addition, the system will also serve to deepen and improve the effectiveness of cooperation between the issuing authorities of these documents and regional customs administrations.