The renovated Turkgozu customs checkpoint opened at the Georgia-Turkey border on Sunday, the Georgian Finance Ministry said.
A Georgian delegation, led by the First Deputy Finance Minister Giorgi Kakauridze, the Deputy Head of the Revenue Service Vladimer Khundadze and Zurab Sichinava, the Head of the Customs Department visited the resonated checkpoint and got acquainted with customs control procedures, together with their Turkish colleagues.
In his speech, Kakauridze, congratulated Turkish side on the opening of the updated customs infrastructure and emphasised the importance of close cooperation between the two countries in the field of customs, which, together with infrastructure projects, is “related to the improvement and simplification of customs procedures, vehicles, goods and passengers ensuring smooth movement and encouraging trade”.
Photo via Finance Ministry
As he noted, for Georgia and Turkey, as countries in the East-West transit corridor, special importance is attached to the development of “an attractive and competitive” transit corridor, for which it is important to “establish unified principles” of development in the customs field.
Kakauridze highlighted the development of customs checkpoints and conducting customs procedures effectively as “one of the priorities” of the Georgian Government, and noted the country had achieved “great success” in this direction, citing Sarfi, Turkgozu-Vale and Kartsakhi-Aktash checkpoints as “exemplary”.
He expressed hope that the presence of another checkpoint equipped with modern standards and the latest technologies on the part of Turkey would speed up customs procedures, which would contribute to economic development in the region.
The Revenue Service said due to the increased international cargo flow, the customs checkpoint in Vale served up to 150 vehicles, more than 300 trucks and 600 individuals, stressing the opening of the updated customs infrastructure on the part of Turkey would double the mentioned data.