News

On 1-3 March 2016 BOMCA Technical Mission experts visited Tashkent to provide advisory support to the Higher Military Customs Institute of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The visit was aimed at providing support in evaluating the compatibility of the existing customs officer training system with World Customs Organization (WCO) professional standards and recommendations of the European Commission Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD).

Following the experience of the previous phases of the Programme, in particular in enhancing international donor coordination and cooperation and strengthening stakeholder networking, BOMCA supported the State Border Service of the Kyrgyz Republic in hosting the International Donors Coordination Meeting on Border Management Issues held on 25 February 2016. The participants at the meeting were the State Border Service of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Kyrgyz Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as international donors and agencies involved in border management and associated areas (EU Delegation to the Kyrgyz Republic, OSCE, RCC, UNODC, UNHCR, UNDP). The Kyrgyz hosting delegation was led by Col. Nurbek Sultanaliev, Head of the International Relations Department of the State Border Service of the Kyrgyz Republic.

On 18-19 February 2016 a Regional Workshop for consortia of border guarding and customs training institutions of Central Asian countries was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The representatives of the training institutions from four countries in Central Asia, namely the Training Center of the Customs Control Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Border Service Academy of the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Professional Development Center of the State Border Service of Kyrgyzstan, the Center of Professional Development and Cynology of the Customs Service of Kyrgyzstan, the Higher Border College of Tajikistan, the Institute for Retraining of the Customs Service of Tajikistan, the Higher Military Customs Institute of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and the Tashkent Higher Combined Arms Command School, gathered to share their experience and ideas on the capacity building activities in the educational processes. The workshop was facilitated by EU experts from the State Border Guard of Latvia and Riga Technical University.

At the beginning of February BOMCA invited two EU experts from the Customs Authority of the Republic of Lithuania to facilitate working meetings with key national partners from the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the State Customs Service under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic. During the working meetings, Ms. Vida Mickiene and Mr. Rimantas Rackauskas conducted discussions on the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) and its implementation aspects in Kazakhstan and reviewed the compatibility of the national legislation of Kyrgyzstan with the General Annex of the RKC. Kazakhstan is the only country from the Central Asian region which has acceded to the Convention and they presented their cumulative experience of implementation of its provisions; Kyrgyzstan is carrying out measures to reform and improve the customs legislation for accession.

On 21 January 2016, the State Border Guard of Latvia conducted a BOMCA informational meeting for stakeholders. The event gathered representatives from embassies of the Central Asian countries accredited in Latvia, members of the BOMCA Consortium – the Customs Department under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, Riga Technical University, the Food and Veterinary Service of the Ministry of Agriculture of Latvia – and representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and Lithuania, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Latvia and the Representation of the European Commission in Latvia. 

On 17 December 2015, the BOMCA Programme facilitated the 5th meeting of the Inter-Agency Commission on Development and Implementation of the Integrated Border Management (IBM) system in the Kyrgyz Republic. The main goal of the Commission is to steer and coordinate the efforts of all agencies involved in implementation of the National IBM Strategy 2012 – 2022.

On 27 November 2015, the First Regional Steering Group meeting gathered together delegates from the border, customs and migration agencies of the Central Asian countries and representatives of the implementing partners in order to discuss plans for the first year of the programme implementation.

On 26 November 2015 in Bishkek, the 9^th phase of the Border Management Programme in Central Asia (BOMCA), together with the 6^th phase of the Central Asia Drug Action Programme (CADAP), held a joint conference which marked the official launch of both programmes