On the 11th to 12th of June, the 15th international seminar on capacity building in the field of trade and transport facilitation was held in Aktau, Kazakhstan, where Turkmenistan was represented by the senior coordinator of the Turkmen «Logistics Association», Sapa Gurbanberdiyev.

The event was organized by the UN Economic Commission for Europe together with a number of international and national partners to implement the «SPECA Roadmap for the digitalization of multimodal exchange of data and documents along the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor using UN legal instruments and standards» adopted on the 24th of November, 2023.

In accordance with the objectives of the Roadmap, participants identified business requirements for the digital transformation of specific documents and supply chain sectors in the Trans-Caspian Corridor and other SPECA corridors. The goal of the workshop is to build capacity and develop technical skills in target countries to implement innovative approaches to harmonize and digitalize the exchange of data and documents along the corridor. This involves the transfer of knowledge and technology to implement electronic information exchange in accordance with UN/CEFACT standards and supporting tools. During the workshop, participants discussed the use of UN/CEFACT standards in multimodal data exchange in the port communities of the Trans-Caspian Corridor, in particular in the ports of Baku, Turkmenbashy, Aktau and Kuryk.

The wide range of issues discussed at the seminar included: a review of best practices in the implementation of port community systems in countries in the region with economies in transition and the development of recommendations for standardizing the exchange of data and documents; the ability to digitize trade and transport documents accompanying goods (waybills, bills of lading and additional documents) as part of information flows about cargo along corridors; Conducting specific pilot testing of digitalization of information exchange in cooperation with TITM, TRACECA and other development partners.

The results of the seminar will become the basis for determining further steps in the development of practical pilot projects as part of the implementation of the SPECA Roadmap for the digitalization of multimodal data and the exchange of documents along the Trans-Caspian corridor using UN standards and legal instruments.