Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk took part in the launch of the International Customs Forum, held at the International Trade Centre in Moscow on 30-31 October. The Deputy Prime Minister also visited an exhibition and replied to journalists’ questions.
The 2023 International Customs Forum is taking place during Russia’s chairmanship of the Eurasian Economic Union. The participants are focusing on prospects for international economic cooperation, the long-term strategic development of the customs sphere and transit potential. They will prioritise other topical matters regarding economic, financial, industrial and foreign economic development under the new conditions.
While inspecting the historical section of the exhibition that deals with the Federal Customs Service, the Deputy Prime Minister noted that the service’s objectives remained almost the same as at its inception. The main aim is to protect the domestic market and create favourable conditions for the development of various industries. The Federal Customs Service is successfully coping with this task today.
“In new conditions, when we are talking about rerouting our commodity and logistic flows, we have rerouted our economy from the West to the East in just 18 months, and the customs sector must meet contemporary challenges, and it is coping with this task. If we look at checkpoints in eastern Russia, we are synchronising the work of checkpoints on the border with China, and six of them are now operating 24 hours a day. We have managed to eliminate queues in Zabaikalsk; the local customs house that operated 12 hours a day now functions round the clock. In fact, we have expanded the commodity flow appreciably, and this meets modern requirements,” Alexei Overchuk said.
“This year, we managed to completely reconstruct the highly important Verkhny Lars checkpoint, and there are no queues there now. This year too, we are completing the reconstruction of the Yarag-Kazmalyar checkpoint on the border between Russia and Azerbaijan. Since 2022, there have been virtually no queues on the Russia-Azerbaijan border, in fact, we resolved this issue 12 months ago. Last year, we slightly expanded the Tagirkent-Kazmalyar checkpoint, and we are planning to upgrade this area in the future. It is important that transport and logistic companies, consignors and consignees using the services of the customs service should be able to cross the border, in effect, without any obstacles. At the same time, the state needs to retain control over what crosses our border. This will ensure the constant protection of our economic interests. Today, we prioritise the reconstruction of checkpoints, we aim to improve client service standards and to interact with our partners on the other side of the border.”
The Deputy Prime Minister also highlighted the significance of the North-South international transport corridor. He noted that it would in fact become the main transport artery linking Russia with countries of the Global South, with India, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Gulf countries and Iran.
Favourable conditions have also been created for the development of trade and economic cooperation and business interaction inside the Eurasian Economic Union.
“The EAEU countries are achieving impressive trade volumes. If we compare trade
within the EAEU with that between the EAEU and the outside world, we can see
that trade within the EAEU is developing much faster. Today, the EAEU has
created favourable conditions that incentivise businesspersons in our five
countries to believe that it is more convenient to operate in tandem with one
another. The statistics also confirm this: last year, we attained a
record-breaking $84 billion, and we have also recorded robust growth this year.
According to some estimates, we could top 100 billion,” Alexei Overchuk said.
