World Customs Organization (WCO) European Region Customs Services Heads conference. May 18-19, 2009, Bergen, Norway.

        WCO European Region Customs Heads conference was held in Bergen, Norway, on May 18-19 2009 with the participation of 96 delegates representing 44 countries. Azerbaijan was represented with the delegation headed by State Customs Committee Chairman Mr. Aydin Aliyev. Delegation included State Customs Committee Foreign Affairs Department chief Mr. Dilavar Farzaliev and Statistics and Information Technologies Head Department chief Mr. Igbal Babayev. Conference was headed by Mr. Kunio Mikuria, WCO Secretary General, and Josephine Feehily, deputy commissioner on European Region. Norway State Secretary, Minister of Finance and Customs Agency Chief Director made a speech in the conference, whereby the topic of “Customs in XXI century” was heavily discussed and the new strategy with this regard was set forth.

Mr. Aydin Aliyev, State Customs Committee Chairman, made a speech on May 18, 2009. Mr. Chairman informed the conference about the “State Program on the modernization of customs service in 2007-2011” and about the projects carried out under this program, as well as proposed to establish the Customs Development Institute Regional Office for Europe in Azerbaijan. This initiative was welcomed by the conference.

      On May 19, conference started its day with the presentation by Mr. Igbal Babayev, the Azeri delegation member, on the application of “Single Window” principle on inspecting the goods and transport means passing the state border checkpoints of Azerbaijan.

      The conference continued with the auditions of the candidate platforms for the position of WCO Deputy Secretary General.