Upgrade of customs information system to promote Russia's foreign trade

The implementation of the project on modernizing the Russian State Customs Committee's information system will provide for the increase in Russia's foreign trade from $174bn in 2003 to $213bn in 2008, State Customs Committee Deputy Chairman Leonid Lozbenko declared at an international conference devoted to the development of the Russian customs service. According to him, this project is implemented within the framework of the federal targeted program "The Development of the Russian Customs Service in 2004 to 2008".

Lozbenko reported that this project was aimed at launching such procedures of registering foreign cargo that met the interests of the world community. "This will promote Russia's further integration into the world economic community and improve the country's investment climate," he stressed.

Speaking about positive results of launching this project, he noted that customs revenues to the federal budget would advance from 740bn rubles ($24.2bn) in 2003 to 1.5 trillion rubles ($49bn) in 2008 if the current customs tariffs remained.