OSCE supports study tour for Kyrgyzstan customs staff trainers

A week-long study tour to Azerbaijan for trainers at Kyrgyzstan’s Customs Training Centre concluded on 15 March 2014 in Baku. The visit was supported by the OSCE Centre in Bishkek.

Four officers from the Training Centre attended specialized classes on teaching and interactive learning methodologies, and visited customs training facilities in Azerbaijan. The programme was designed so that the officers can train their colleagues upon their return to Kyrgyzstan.

“The capacity-building and modernization of Kyrgyz Customs is one of the OSCE Centre’s top priorities so that customs officers are in a position to address modern challenges to security, improve border management and facilitate revenue collection and trade,” said Yulia Minaeva, Senior Economic and Environmental Officer at the OSCE Centre in Bishkek. “The study tour also allows customs officers from both countries to share experience, good practices and strengthen mutually beneficial co-operation.”

The OSCE’s ongoing support to Kyrgyzstan’s customs service gained renewed impetus in November 2013 when a new Customs Training Centre was opened in Leninskoe village near Bishkek. In total, some 360 Customs officers, coaches and instructors from Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan will have been trained at the Centre by the end of 2014. The OSCE’s training-of-trainers initiatives are aimed at contributing to an autonomous and effective customs education system in Kyrgyzstan.