From 8 to 10 November, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia (BOMCA 10) organised a short-term traineeship in Latvia for representatives of academic staff of the customs training institution of Turkmenistan.

The objective of the traineeship was to upgrade the qualifications and competencies of the academic and training staff of the customs training institution.

In the framework of this event, the participants visited the International Business and Customs Institute of Riga Technical University and the National Customs Board of the State Revenue Service of Latvia. Participants were introduced to the training system under the programme “Administration of Customs and Taxes” of the Riga Technical University and the system for improving the professional qualifications of employees of the State Revenue Service of Latvia.

The participants also learned from the experience of developing customs areas relevant to the specialisation of the participants.

As part of the activity, participants and experts from Latvia jointly elaborated recommendations to improve the training and professional development of customs officers in Turkmenistan and agreed to strengthen cooperation with the academic staff of Riga Technical University in research and development in customs areas relevant to the trainees' specialisations.

Similar peer-to-peer exchanges have been implemented for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Therefore, this activity finalises the round of short-term traineeship in Latvia for all Central Asian countries in 2022.