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By Trend

The World Customs Organization (WCO) is more particularly assisting Azerbaijan Customs with the further improvement of its risk management (RM) system, Secretary General of the WCO, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya told Trend.

Mikuriya noted that a Member of the World Customs Organization (WCO) since 1992, the State Customs Committee (SCC) of Azerbaijan is an active Member of the WCO.

"Customs modernization is an ongoing process. With the ever-changing international trade environment, Customs needs to constantly adapt and develop its capacity to address new challenges that arise," he added.

Mikuriya pointed out that Azerbaijan Customs seems to be on track to keep its standards and processes up-to-date.

"Azerbaijan Customs has been cooperating with the WCO to modernize and improve its processes, and has benefited from WCO capacity building support in various areas such as Authorized Economic Operators (AEO), Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Risk Management (RM), Harmonized System classification, X-ray image analysis, Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) and Customs Valuation. In 2014, Azerbaijan also joined the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)-WCO Container Control Programme (CCP). A series of training activities in risk management, supply chain security and trade facilitation at seaports have also been provided to Azerbaijan Customs officers in this framework.

At the moment, the WCO is more particularly assisting Azerbaijan Customs with the further improvement of its RM system. Azerbaijan is the latest in a growing number of countries to have joined the WCO Cargo Targeting System (CTS) with a view to enhancing its cargo risk assessment and targeting capability. On 20 April 2021, an online event was held to acknowledge completion of the deployment of the WCO Cargo CTS to Azerbaijan SCC," said the WCO secretary general.

He recalled that a WCO regional experience-sharing workshop for European Customs administrations was held recently, in the framework of a web series on disruptive technologies.

"During this workshop, WCO Secretary General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya and Mr. Safar Mehdiyev - in his capacity as Vice-Chairperson for the WCO’s Europe region - addressed the participants. The aim of these WCO regional workshops on disruptive technologies is to further raise awareness about the possibilities offered by technological solutions towards facilitating and better controlling the cross-border movement of goods. Azerbaijan SCC is carefully exploring how the application of these disruptive technologies (such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things) in the Customs domain could support Azerbaijan Customs in its missions. Azerbaijan Customs is committed to continue digitizing Customs processes in the future," added Mikuriya.

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