Workshop on Digitalization as an Anti-Corruption Strategy
Gennadijs Maskovs
Customs Component Lead, USAID’s Trade Central Asia Activity
Mr. Gennadijs Maskovs is the Customs and Borders Team Lead of the USAID Trade Central Asia Project. Mr. Maskovs had been working in the Latvian Customs Service for the past 25 years working at different types of management position and last position being the deputy director of the National Customs Board of the State Revenue Service of the Republic of Latvia. Since May 2017 to February 2018 Mr. Maskovs has worked for GIZ in Astana office as a short term expert in areas of customs control, cooperation (joint border check points, joint operations at the national and international level and recognition of customs control results), risk analysis, risk management, customs simplifications, transit procedures and support to legitimate trade. Since March 2018 to February 2022 had been working as component manager and adviser of the Trade Facilitation in Central Asia Programme of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). He has knowledge in customs areas, such as: work in law enforcement agencies, integrated border management, customs control, intelligence, profiling, personnel management, as well as support to legitimate trade and customs simplifications. He also has experience to work in Central Asia since 2010. He took part in some short-term projects financed by the European Union in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Nepal, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine. He has completed the Riga Technical University Institute of International Economic Affairs and Customs and he has master’s degree in international business management and bachelor’s degree in economics.
Mr. Normunds Rudzitis
Riga Technical University, Assistant Professor
Normunds Rudzitis has extensive experience in business, management of customs matters, as well as organization of internal audit. Since 2012 Normunds Rudzitis has been working as an assistant professor and researcher at the RTU International Business and Customs Institute. The main research areas are risk management, corruption prevention and supply chain security. He is an author of 9 scientific publications. Normunds Rudzitis has been working as an international expert in the field of internal audit, customs management and prevention of corruption in countries such as Armenia, Ukraine, Moldova and Romania since 2008 and has been actively participating in the implementation of the BOMCA project in Central Asia since 2014.
Mr. Givi Nadiradze
Head of Customs Audit Division of Customs Department of Georgia’s State Revenue Service
Givi Nadiradze is the Head of the Post-Clearance Audit Division at the Georgian Revenue Service, where he has led on introducing both the ‘single window’ principle and ASYCUDA Clearence risks profiles. Likewise in his time as Deputy Head of Division at Georgia’s Customs Department, he was instrumental in ensuring successful implementation of several reforms including introduction of Customs Clearance Zones and altering the operation of Customs Crossing Points, by reducing number of agencies involved at the border and delegating their functions to the national customs office. Mr. Nadiradze has contributed his extensive expertise in supporting global customs development. He has served as an International Customs Automation Consultant at the USAID Competitiveness, Jobs and Trade Activity. In this role he has been involved in reviewing established processes in Uzbek national customs legislation, developing and recommending modern customs automation procedures and e-tools in customs administration for streamlining and improving customs procedures at the border, and simplifying tariff and non-tariff regulatory methods. In 2013 he served as an advisor at the Moldavia Customs Services in adopting electronic clearance procedures.
Mr. Vakhtang Lashkaradze
USAID Trade Central Asia Activity, Customs Adviser
Vakhtang Lashkaradze is an adviser in the field of e-services in tax and customs administration at the Georgian Revenue Service, and a customs expert at the Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG). In recent years, Mr. Lashkaradze has worked at the Ministry of Finance of Georgia as Head of the Customs Statistics and Information Division. Through to 2019 he has led the revenue service, having responsibility for coordinating the works of the customs department. In Georgia, Mr. Lashkaradze was a force behind introducing the ‘automated customs’ unified electronic system of licenses, permits and certificates. From 2017, he has been an International Customs Automation Consultant for the USAID Competitiveness, Jobs and Trade Activity. He is involved in reviewing processes outlined in Uzbekistan’s national customs legislation, and developing and recommending modern customs automation procedures and e-tools in customs administration. The latter has proved a key means of streamlining and improving customs procedures at Uzbekistan’s border, and simplifying tariff and non-tariff regulatory methods.
Regional Working Meeting of National Trade Facilitation Committees of the Central Asia (jointly with GIZ)
Asel Uzagalieva
GIZ
Ms. Asel Uzagalieva has twenty years of experience at the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in the field of sustainable economic development and private sector development.
Currently, she holds a position of the Component Manager in the Trade Facilitation in Central Asia Project of GIZ and coordinates the Public-Private Dialogues for implementation of Trade Facilitation Agreement of WTO in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and regional cooperation on trade issues.
Before she served as the “Reform Policy” Component Manager of the Promotion of Sustainable Economic Development Programme in Kyrgyzstan for 10 years. Within this programme, Ms. Uzagalieva managed the programme’s activities in the field of investment attraction and support the Investment Promotion and Protection Agency, cooperation with the Ministry of Economy on economic policy issues such as the green economy and regional development, private sector development, trade and export promotion, competitiveness increasing of Kyrgyzstan and etc.
Larisa Kislyakova
Chairperson of TLP
Chairperson of the Central Asia Transport and Logistics Partnership. Chairman of the Board of the Tajikistan Union of Professional Consultants. She has thirty years of experience in the field of foreign economic and foreign trade activities. She was the head of the Working group on the accession of the Republic of Tajikistan to the WTO. Expert in trade, transport and transit services.
Workshop on Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters, and Exchanging Pre-arrival Information (PI) between Central Asian Countries
Medet Tursaliev
USAID Trade Central Asia, Deputy Customs Component Lead
Mr. Medet Tursaliev is an experienced program manager with a demonstrated history of working in the international affairs industry. Skilled in international trade and cooperation, Early Warning Systems, International Relations, Leadership, and Homeland Security issues. Since 2014 he was involved in implementation of projects related to issues of coordinated border management, customs reforms, trade facilitation and capacity building initiatives of border agencies of the Kyrgyz Republic, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Serbia, Ukraine and Bangladesh. He worked at numerous international organizations such as Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and the World Customs Organization. He is particularly skilled in issues related to implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement by the Customs Administrations.
Mr. Tursaliev graduated from American University in Central Asia with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Kyrgyz State Technical University with a master’s degree in Management.
He is fluent in Russian, Kyrgyz, and English.
Larisa Kislyakova
Chairperson of TLP
Chairperson of the Central Asia Transport and Logistics Partnership. Chairman of the Board of the Tajikistan Union of Professional Consultants. She has thirty years of experience in the field of foreign economic and foreign trade activities. She was the head of the Working group on the accession of the Republic of Tajikistan to the WTO. Expert in trade, transport and transit services.
Lazzat Daniyarova
WCO Representative
Lazzat Daniyarova is a Technical Officer of the Compliance and Facilitation Directorate of the World Customs Organization (WCO). Her work at the WCO has mainly focused on the SAFE Framework of Standards, the Revised Kyoto Convention, and issues related to the Trade Facilitation Agreement including coordination with the WTO. As of 2020 she worked as a Revised Kyoto Convention Review Expert at WCO, prior to which she was a Professional Associate. Ms. Daniyarova’s expertise at the WCO was underpinned by her extensive experience at Kazakhstan’s customs office. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Finance from Japan’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
Mr. Mario Apostolov
UNECE Regional Adviser, Economic Cooperation and Trade Division
Mario Apostolov is a Regional Adviser at the Economic Cooperation and Trade Division of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). He has provided advice on trade facilitation and trade development to transitioning economies, including countries of the UN Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) and in Southeastern and Eastern Europe. Mr. Apostolov has expertise in the operations of national trade facilitation bodies, the ‘Single Window’ approach to export, import and transit clearance, regional trade integration, trade facilitation reforms and the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, as well as digitalization of multimodal transport data and document exchange. He holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies at the University of Geneva, and teaches a course on the Dynamics of Regional Cooperation and Diplomacy at the International University in Geneva. His publications cover such diverse matters as regional integration, trade facilitation, and the geopolitics of Christian-Muslim relations.
Jon Walden
MBE FIEx
Jon Walden is the Principal Consultant for Customs, Export Competitiveness and Trade Facilitation at Crown Agents, where he has worked for 23 years. His career experience has covered all four pillars of international trade, being commercial, transport, regulatory and finance, having worked in over 45 countries. Additionally, he has designed and delivered ‘Export, Practice, Procedures & Finance’ SME capacity building courses for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) across Central Asia. Mr. Walden is a Fellow of the Institute of Export and International Trade, for whom he is a tutor and examiner in World Customs Practice. He lectures for the WCO PICARD Masters in Customs Administration course, contributes thought pieces to international trade journals, speaks at high profile conferences, and has authored three books on international trade practice. Mr. Walden’s expert knowledge is underpinned by his early career experience in the fields of export, import and freight forwarding.
