The State Customs Service of Turkmenistan and the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan have established an exchange of data on road transit through the Caspian Sea using the eTIR digital system. This was reported by the press office of the State Customs Service of Turkmenistan.

With organisational support from the International Road Transport Union (IRU), the parties successfully carried out a test exchange of information on consignments travelling from Azerbaijan via Turkmenistan to Uzbekistan, as well as from Turkmenistan via Azerbaijan to the Republic of Turkey.

The project has become one of the first examples of direct data exchange on transit road transport between the customs authorities of the two countries, which are situated on the ‘Europe–Central Asia’ international transport corridor.

The eTIR system enables the real-time exchange of customs information, reduces paperwork, speeds up customs clearance, cuts costs and simplifies trade operations, thereby enhancing the attractiveness of transit routes.

The implementation of eTIR was carried out as part of the project ‘Developing Regional Connectivity through Digitalisation of Customs Operations and Creating “Smart” Customs’.