Belarus : Enhancing Border-Crossing Time Release Studies to Support Trade Facilitation Reforms
Belarus is a member of Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), bordering three European Union (EU) countries (Poland,Lithuania and Latvia), Ukraine and Russia. As such, the country is strategically located for international transit trade. With the aim of b...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/462081496826083840/Belarus-enhancing-border-crossing-time-release-studies-to-support-trade-facilitation-reforms http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27549 |
| Summary: | Belarus is a member of Eurasian Economic
Union (EEU), bordering three European Union (EU) countries
(Poland,Lithuania and Latvia), Ukraine and Russia. As such,
the country is strategically located for international
transit trade. With the aim of boosting the country’s
transit role, the government of Belarus is undertaking
several infrastructure development projects and regulatory
reforms aimed at trade facilitation. Government undertook a
Two agencies at the border reform with the goal of reducing
the number of agencies at the border to only two, namely
Customs and the Border Police. Belarus’s efforts were
supported by the World Bank Group (WBG), including the World
Bank’s Transit Corridor Improvement Project (TCIP), which is
financing the modernization of the transit Corridor-M6
Minsk-Grodno, and the Belarus Business Regulation and
National Quality Infrastructure Advisory Project of the
International Finance Corporation (IFC) with the aim of
improving trade procedures. Border-crossing time release
studies are powerful tools for analyzing trade logistics and
measuring the performance of border agencies. Insights from
a border-crossing study can help in designing and
accelerating trade facilitation reforms. Preparing and
carrying out an effective study is a challenging exercise in
itself, as it involves sensitive data, and complex
multi-agency and cross-country relationships. The
border-crossing time release study for commercial cargo
undertaken by the World Bank Group’s (WBG's) Trade and
Competitiveness Global Practice team in Belarus in 2015 is
an example that provides important lessons that may be
useful for other countries. In this context, the border
crossing time release study (BCTR study) was designed by the
two WBG project teams, and implemented in close cooperation
with the State Customs Committee of Belarus. |
|---|