The research company “Zerkalo Central Asia” conducted a survey among the participants of foreign economic activity in four Central Asian countries – Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. The survey was conducted for the “Trade Facilitation in Central Asia” Program, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Federal Government of Germany.
In January 2017, to facilitate trade procedures, GIZ announced the launch of the Regional Program “Trade Facilitation in Central Asia” (TFCA), which has been implemented over the past three years. TFCA aims to simplify international trade procedures in the Central Asian countries.
To monitor the progress of the TFCA implementation and track the achievement of the set indicators, the research company “Zerkalo Central Asia” was selected as the contractor for conducting the research. Over the past three years, baseline, interim, and final studies have been conducted in the four Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
The main objective of the national studies is to determine the time spent on the release of exports, imports, and transit, as well as to assess the number of physical inspections at the border.
The target group of the national studies were respondents – participants in foreign economic activity (FEA). During the surveys, FEA participants shared information on the number of physical inspections conducted by customs, the time taken for the release of exports, and the time required for international transit.
In each country, 30 companies were surveyed as part of the study. The distribution of companies was as follows: 10 export companies, 10 import companies, and 10 transport and logistics companies.
A special feature of this study is that it involved the participants of FEA directly, namely the company managers or individuals in the company responsible for the documentation of all types related to imports and exports.
The program aims to simplify procedures and processes of international trade in the Central Asian countries. The introduction of trade facilitation measures has a direct positive impact on trading companies by reducing time costs and optimizing state regulation processes of foreign trade activities. As a result of cost reductions by companies, international competitiveness is increased, thereby strengthening the economic efficiency of the private sector.
