Officials of South Kazakhstan Region’s customs control department told meeting participants about the dynamic of trade between the two countries and the movement of people, goods and vehicles across the Kazakh-Uzbek border. This year trade between South Kazakhstan Region and Uzbekistan has amounted to US$625 million, 122% up on last year.

However, customs and other services operating on the border are facing problems because of the inefficient work of checkpoints on both sides.

For example, only five out of the nine checkpoints that are designed for passage of goods and vehicles are open. The other four do not operate regularly for various reasons. For example, the Kazakh Zhibek Zholy checkpoint and the adjacent Uzbek Gisht Kuprik are temporarily closed because our side is repairing old and constructing new buildings. Our Kaplanbek [checkpoint] and the Uzbek Navoi are technically equipped and fully staffed but we still don’t know when our neighbours are planning to open their side. No vehicles are allowed through the Tolebi-Minsu [checkpoint] because since 2003 the adjacent road has been blocked off with concrete slabs and people can cross it only on foot.

This causes concentration of a large number of vehicles at the operating checkpoints, which, our customs officials believe, benefits smugglers. The border between our countries goes through a varying terrain, not only along river beds but also across the steppe and mountains. Border areas are densely populated, settlements and houses are very close to the border line, there are numerous roundabout roads and self-made river crossings that all hinder comprehensive customs control, creating preconditions for illegal movement of goods, i.e. for smuggling.

In the past several years South Kazakhstan customs and border officers have repeatedly destroyed self-made bridges and other crossings, ploughed up roundabout dirt tracks, blocked off roads and paths that ran across the border. However, as smuggler fighters complained at the meeting, ruined crossings soon get rebuilt and road blocks get all pulled away overnight by tractors.

According to South Kazakhstan Region customs officials, over the first nine months of this year they uncovered 708 cases of smuggling goods and vehicles. They opened 11 criminal cases and 697 cases under the administrative code. They seized goods worth more than 85 million tenge, extracted fines worth more than 6.2 million tenge and compensated losses to the state worth 7 million tenge.

The press office of South Kazakhstan Region’s customs department told Izvestiya-Kazakhstan that the Kazakh side proposed joining efforts to channel the illegal flow of goods and vehicles to go through official checkpoints for customs formalities and control. This would require first of all opening and full-time operation of the checkpoints that are currently working at half-capacity.

After discussing the meeting’s agenda, the customs officials agreed to set up a working group out of heads of operational departments and appoint people to be in charge of coordination.