Vyborg's Customs Office opens "green corridor" for cargo and vehicles from Europe

Vyborg's Customs Office (the Leningrad region) opens a "green corridor" for non-stop transit of cargo and vehicles from North European and EU countries at its Torfyanovka border post, announced the State Customs Committee's (SCC) press service.

"The agreement on this project was reached in the beginning of December 2002 during the meeting of heads of customs services from Russia, Sweden and Finland in Swedish town of Goteborg," says the SCC press release.

The Russian SCC chairman Mikhail Vanin, Director General of the Finnish Main Customs Office Tapani Erling and Director General of the Swedish Customs Service Kjell Jansson are scheduled to attend the opening ceremony.

According to SCC press service, the Russian side has prepared a brand-new technology of border customs control in less than a year. All three countries have created a unique information system, which includes shared databases and a complex computer center.

"The project, in essence, allows to process all information automatically. It arrives from neighboring countries at the border checkpoint in electronic form prior to the arrival of cargo. The use of such system eliminates the necessity of customs brokerage assistance at the border, and ensures significant savings for the participants of foreign trade. The document processing time is reduced from hours or days to several minutes," says the statement issued by the press services.

This system does not allow any tampering with official documents and, therefore prevent any illegal deals between customs officials and other interested parties in order to minimize the amount of customs duties.

Initially, about 15 Finnish and Swedish companies will participate in the project. Later, their numbers will increase gradually. German and Polish Customs Offices have already expressed their interest in the project. "We use similar technologies in cooperation with Customs Offices in Ukraine and Kazakhstan," the SCC press release underlines.