2/22
Joint Workshop CIT – OSJD – TRACECA – UIC

Permanent Secretariat of the IGC TRACECA under support of the international railway organisations CIT, OSJD, and UIC organised a joint workshop with the aim to support and promote the wide application of the CIM/SMGS consignment note including its electronic version on TRACECA railway routes through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye and Kazakhstan.

TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) is an international transport programme involving 12 member states of the Eastern European, Caucasus and Central Asian region. The programme aim is to strengthen economic relations, trade and transport in the regions of the Black Sea basin, South Caucasus and Central Asia. It has a permanent Secretariat in Baku, Azerbaijan, and a regional office in Odessa, Ukraine. The construction and putting into operation the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) line has opened the new opportunities for the TRACECA route making it more attractive for the clients and operators. The Baku–Tbilisi–Kars is an international rail link project connecting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, which became operational in 2017.

The Workshop on Use of the CIM/SMGS Consignment Note on TRACECA railway routes took place on 16th June as a video conference. The Permanent Secretariat of the IGC TRACECA took an initiative to organise this event in collaboration with the Organization for Co-operation between Railways (OSJD), the CIT and the International Union of Railways (UIC). The representatives of transport departments, customs, railway organizations, maritime operators of the TRACECA member countries from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye and Kazakhstan as well as invited representatives from Romania and Ukraine participated in the workshop, made their contributions on the question of the implementation and use of the CIM/SMGS consignment note.

The main goal of the seminar was to support implementation and use of the CIM/SMGS consignment note on TRACECA railways routes across Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye and Kazakhstan. The joint workshop was divided on 6 sections to ensure the detailed consideration of the various aspects of the use of the CIM/SMGS consignment note. The in-depth discussion of general questions such as legal and technical requirements, experience and best practices in implementation, readiness and constraints in selected TRACECA countries, the use of the consignment note in customs transit, in multimodal transport, as well as an open discussion of ways how to solve the identified problems in specific TRACECA member states took place. The GS CIT made its contributions to the two relevant sessions: Experiences and best practices in implementation of CIM/SMGS consignment note and Use of the CIM/SMGS consignment note in multimodal transport.

All parties involved shared the common understanding that the use of CIM/SMGS consignment note and digitalization can significantly simplify the border crossing procedures. The parties agreed on the importance to continue the work on the implementation of the common CIM/SMGS consignment note and cooperation with a focus on digitalization, facilitation of transportation procedures and exchange of information with controlling government agencies related to the use of electronic CIM/SMGS consignment note on TRACECA routes. Mr. Asset Assavbayev, Secretary General of the PS IGC TRACECA, announced the use of the CIM/SMGS consignment note, including its electronic version as one of our priorities of his organisation for the coming future. Therefore, there is an intention to organise a successive joint workshop dedicated to the issues of the use of electronic consignment note. The CIT GS will continue to support the TRACECA organisation and countries in the implementation of CIM/SMGS consignment note including the electronic one.

dariia.scarlino(at)cit-rail.org