News

Lithuania’s experience in combating corruption at the border control services and customs offices was presented during the Economic and Environmental Forum of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which took place on 1-2 February in Vienna. The presentation was made by Ambassador Vytautas Naudužas, who is the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office on Transport issues.

Ambassador noted that administrative barriers to cross-border movement of goods and services still existed in the OSCE region. Therefore, he urged the OSCE member states to exchange the examples of best practices, to develop the mechanisms of early warning and to follow the solidarity principles.

“Facilitation of customs procedures and early exchange of data would permit us to save time and costs for transportation of goods. This would directly impact the competitiveness of our countries and regions in the international transport and logistics chain”, Ambassador V.Naudužas said.

He noted that the development level of transport and logistics systems in the OSCE region was uneven and highlighted the need to take into account future flows of goods and needs of the society when developing the infrastructure.

Ambassador V.Naudužas presented his analysis on the potential and development possibilities for the East-West transport corridor between maritime countries and landlocked states.

The forum discussed possibilities to increase cross-border capacity, the improvement of conditions for and security of land-road and railroad transport in the OSCE region, the coordination of the activities of customs services and other border control structures, the strengthening of legal basis.

The Economic and Environmental Forum is the main and the highest level annual meeting within the economic and environmental dimension of the OSCE, it brought together 56 OSCE member states. The second part of the forum will be held on 24-26 May 2010 in Prague.

One of the priorities of Kazakhstan’s OSCE Chairmanship in 2010 is the development of open and secure transport links among the members of the organization. The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Kazakhstan's Secretary of State and Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev, appointed V.Naudužas, Ambassador for Energy and Transport Policy Issues at the Economic Security Policy Department of Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office on Transport issues.

Lithuania will be the next to hold the OSCE Chairmanship in 2011.