OSCE improves teaching skills of Afghan customs officers
BISHKEK, 27 October 2011 - An educational course for Afghan customs officers held in the ‘training-of-trainers’ format concluded in Bishkek today.
During this three-week course organized by the OSCE Centre in Bishkek and delivered jointly by two OSCE advisers and three trainers from the Afghan Customs Department, ten customs officers developed their skills necessary to work as trainers in Afghanistan.
The ceremony of the project conclusion held in the State Customs Service of Kyrgyzstan was attended by the Deputy Minister for Customs and Revenue and the Head of External Affairs from Afghanistan’s Finance Ministry.
“The OSCE supports close practical co-operation between Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan’s customs authorities,” said Ambassador Andrew Tesoriere, the Head of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek. “Good border management - of which customs service forms an integral part - is vital for promoting wider economic prosperity, containing unlawful movement of goods and persons, and ensuring the efficient collection of customs and excise revenue to pay for the delivery of wider public services such as health, education and public infrastructural investment.“
Asylbek Kojobekov, the Deputy Head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Customs Service, said: “This is an example of the OSCE’s engagement aimed at strengthening state institutions in Afghanistan, improving and extending regional ties in the field of customs activities.”
The OSCE Centre in Bishkek has held a number of projects in the field of customs with the support of the State Customs Service of Kyrgyzstan. Within the past 18 months, 108 Afghan Customs officers have been trained in Bishkek in such areas as fight against smuggling, duty collection, as well as ethics and human rights. The courses curriculum was developed in co-operation with the Afghan National Customs Academy.
These activities are part of larger OSCE’s work to enhance engagement with Afghanistan as decided by Foreign Ministers from OSCE participating States in Madrid in 2007 following a request from Afghanistan for the OSCE’s assistance in the area of border security, police training and combating drug trafficking, and underscored at the Astana Summit last December.