The concept of the National portal for trade facilitation was presented within the International Trade Center (ITC) project “Ready4Trade Central Asia”
Last Friday, an online meeting on the development of the National portal on trade facilitation in the Republic of Kazakhstan was held in Nur-Sultan with the participation of the Vice-Minister of trade and integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan A. Askaruly and Vice-Minister of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan R. Yensebaeva.
The project for the development and launch of the National portal for trade facilitation is one of the four components of the global project “Ready4Trade Central Asia”, aimed at supporting the development of intraregional and international trade in five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The project operator in the region is the International Trade Center (ITC), a joint agency of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations (UN), whose mission is to increase the competitiveness of the private sector (SMEs) by building export capacity, reducing the cost of trade transactions and deepening regional integration through trade facilitation measures.
The project “Ready4Trade Central Asia” is designed for 4 years and is implemented at the national level with the assistance of the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as its subordinate organization – JSC “Center For Trade Policy Development “QazTrade”. Financial support for the project is provided by the European Union.
The portal will include a step-by-step guide to trade operations (export, import and transit), a regulatory framework, an online information point for explaining foreign trade procedures, and trade statistics on markets with high export-import potential.
Vice-Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan A. Askaruly, chairing the meeting, noted the extreme importance of the functioning of the future Portal in the context of the competitiveness of the private sector in Kazakhstan, the implementation of future reforms in the field of trade facilitation, as well as the implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.
Following the meeting, it was decided to create a Working group on the development and maintenance of the National portal in order to effectively interagency interaction aimed at coordinating the work on filling the portal with all the information necessary for stakeholders, as well as its timely and uninterrupted updating.
Reference:
The International Trade Center (ITC) has launched a four-year Ready4Trade project in Central Asia to provide targeted support for trade development in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The project funded by the European Union in the amount of 15 million euros contributes to the sustainable and comprehensive economic development of the region by supporting investment, competitiveness and trade.