Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- At the headquarters of the World Customs Organization (WCO) in Brussels, a meeting was held between the Ambassador of Uzbekistan, Gayrat Fazylov, and the new Secretary General of the organization, Ian Saunders, Dunyo news agency reported.

Currently, 186 countries around the world are members of the World Customs Organization, which control about 98% of international trade. Uzbekistan acceded to the Convention establishing the Customs Cooperation Council on 28 July 1992, and since then has been actively participating in the activities of the World Customs Organization. New WCO Secretary General Ian

Saunders took office on 1 January 2024.

The WCO Secretary General highly appreciated the large-scale reforms in the customs sector carried out in Uzbekistan in recent years, noting the importance of modernizing customs processes to ensure the effectiveness of the ongoing reforms.

He drew attention to the high efficiency of digitalization of customs procedures in Uzbekistan, as a result of which the time spent on customs control and clearance has been significantly reduced.

“Thanks to the personal attention and strong political will of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, as well as support for reforms at the highest level, consistency in the modernization of customs is ensured. Understanding by the top leadership of Uzbekistan of the importance of the customs sector on the path to modernization of the country contributes to the accelerated advancement of the process of comprehensive transformation of customs,” he said.

He called the results of customs reform in Uzbekistan an “inspiring success story” that encourages other countries to follow suit. “We want to learn more about the achievements of Uzbekistan in the process of modernizing its customs service and share this success with other WCO member countries,” he noted.

The WCO chief expressed his commitment to further support reforms in Uzbekistan, including in areas such as time-of-release research, post-clearance audit, risk management and single window, which contribute to trade facilitation and will have a positive impact on ongoing efforts to ensure effective customs control.

During the meeting, issues of building the capacity of the Customs Committee, the participation of Uzbek specialists in WCO master’s programs, the introduction of international standards, as well as interaction within various programs, such as the Global Trade Facilitation Program (GTFP), the UNODC-WCO Global Trade Facilitation Program (GTFP), were also discussed. container transportation (PKKP) and others.