22-26 May 2023, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

The WCO National Workshop on Risk Management for the State Customs Services of Turkmenistan was held from 22 to 26 May 2023 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, under the sponsorship of the China Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF/China). Together with the WCO Accredited Expert on Risk Management, Ms. Yuko Mamiya, Program Manager of the ROCB A/P, also attend the workshop as an expert on Risk Management. A total of 21 Customs officers from various Departments benefited from the practical presentations and discussions on risk management.

The objectives of the workshop were to review and analyze Turkmenistan Customs’ risk management system, including the Risk Management Committee, as well as provide support for further improvement of its system.

In the course of the workshop, the workshop participants were updated with various topics including WCO Risk Management Compendium (RMC) Volume 1, the latest WCO tools and instruments, the Trusted-Trader programme, etc. Ms. Yuko Mamiya introduced the updates of RMC Volume 2 and explained the architecture of risk management. Furthermore, she explained the role of information and intelligence as well as the WCO Customs Enforcement Network (CEN) and how to analyze the data from WCO CEN. The participants and WCO experts discussed the further improvement of the risk management system, risk register as well as the Risk Management Committee and its Terms of Reference.

In his closing remarks, Mr. Dovran Jepbarov, Head, Law and International Relations Department, expressed his appreciation to the WCO, CCF/China and WCO experts for organizing this workshop to assist the Turkmenistan Customs in implementing risk management in accordance with international standards. The WCO experts gave some suggestions for a way forward for Turkmen Customs to carry out their Customs modernization project.

The active participation and contribution of the participants resulted in a successful workshop. The workshop assisted the participants in enriching their knowledge about risk management. The workshop participants expressed appreciation to the WCO and its experts for sharing knowledge and valuable information related to risk management that is useful for them to further improvement of their risk management system.