Problems which emerge in export and import and transit procedures spoil Tajikistan’s image at the international scene, Tajik Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sharif Rahimzoda said.
“Currently the republic holds a quite unfavorable ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business index. This happens because of multiple barriers and delays in international trade,” minister said at the fourth session of the Coordinating Council for implementation of the Single Window for Export, Import and Transit Procedures in Tajikistan Program.
Rahimzoda is confident that there is a need to work hard to remove unnecessary procedures and added that “improvement of Tajikistan’s image is in our hands.”
EU Program Manager Boris Filatov said that the Single Window program will be launched in June this year.
He stressed that on April 12 last year the Government of Tajkistan and European Commission signed an agreement “On implementation of the Single Window system in Tajikistan.”
“Based on this document the EU mission announced tender to select the company for program implementation. We already selected the company. However, EU procedures do not allow us to announce it right now since such information will be made public as soon as we sign the contract with this company,” he said.
EU official added that this is a very serious international company with related experience and good financial opportunities. He also said that the company’s experts already have experience of working in Tajikistan. Filatov said the contract is expected to be signed in June this year.
“We expect that implementation of the program will begin shortly after the signing of the contract with main contractor. The system is planned to be launched following a 16-month period. In other words, in autumn next year we expect to have an operating system,” he added.
Apart from information from EU about the implementation of the Tajik-EU agreement, the session also discussed recommendations from supplementary analysis of the Tajik legislation on effective implementation of the Single Window system.
Furthermore, session participants have discussed the results of preliminary analysis of elements of these documents and other issues on implementation of this system in the republic.
