Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 15-16 February, Tashkent hosted a regional event on the electronic exchange of certificates of origin, organized as part of the Ready4Trade Central Asia project.

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 intra-regional and international trade in the countries of the region. The beneficiaries of the project are governments, small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular women-led enterprises, and business support organizations.

The event was attended by government representatives and experts on certification of the 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 Investments, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan noted the importance of digitalizing trade operations and introducing aspects of paperless trade as one of the key areas that accelerate the passage of foreign trade procedures and simplify border crossing, as well as the development of trade in general.

As part of the event, the 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 e-commerce and facilitating the creation of a digital trading ecosystem at the regional level.

During the thematic sessions of the event, representatives of the authorized bodies and involved departments of Central Asia had the opportunity to exchange experience in maintaining the national procedure for certification of the 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 departments to study best practices and identify existing shortcomings in the process of electronic certification of the origin of goods in order to further develop recommendations for the facilitation of trade procedures in mutual trade in the Central Asian region.

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