Belarus to introduce electronic border-crossing queue booking system in 2015

The electronic border-crossing queue booking system will go operational in Belarus in 2015, Chairman of the State Border Committee Leonid Maltsev said at the seminar with the participation of the MPs of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly in Brest, BelTA has learned.

The State Border Committee and Beltamozhservice Company are working on the pilot project, developing the software product and preparing a platform for the service. The system may be launched in a test mode in late 2014. The project will be time-tried at the border cargo terminal Kozlovichi 2 which completes the construction of its service area.

The system is simple. Vehicles that intend to cross the border will do it through the service area. They register there and get an e-card which they present at the checkpoint. Time and date of crossing the border can be booked online or the border terminal.

The project needs the relevant legal framework. After the system is tested, it will be introduced in other border crossings. The next border checkpoint on the list is Warszawski Most. There is a service area there. Apart from the Brest authorities, the Grodno Oblast Executive Committee is showing interest in the project.

Leonid Maltsev stressed that the joint work of border guards and customs officers in improving the infrastructure of border crossings would create more comfortable conditions for crossing the border. In his w rods, one of the priority areas in the cooperation of border and customs services is to secure the crossing of the official participants and guests of the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. As of 14 May 2014, a total of 17,640 people crossed the Belarusian border on a reduced procedure, without taking into account the citizens of Russia and foreign nationals who entered the country from the Russian Federation.

On 15 May Brest hosted a seminar of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly to discuss the customs legislation practice in the Customs Union. The MPs visited the biggest highway border checkpoints Kozlovichi and Warszawski Most, the transport and logistics center Brest-Beltamozhservice to get familiar with the work of the Belarusian customs bodies within the Customs Union and the Single Economic Space. The participants of the seminar discussed the issues related to the cooperation of border and customs services in the customs regulation of the foreign economic activity. Special attention was on the features of the customs legislation application.

Partaking in the event was Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly Viktor Guminsky, Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Committee Sergei Borisyuk, Brest Oblast Governor Konstantin Sumar, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for International Affairs of the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of Russia Valery Shnyakin, Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to Belarus Ergaly Bulegenov, Vladimir Goshin, Member of the Board (Minister) for Customs Cooperation of the Eurasian Economic Commission Vladimir Goshin.