On April 13, 2022, the Working Group discussed a Plan for the Pilot Application of the Global Transit Document (GTrD)

Among the main participants of the WG were representatives of state bodies, customs administrations of the MLA TRACECA member-states - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, as well as observers, including the beneficiary of the TRACECA programme - Turkmenistan and TRACECA partner, international organization – UN ESCAP.

The agenda of the meeting covered 5 key issues, including discussions on the objectives of establishing the WG, main stages of the Pilot Project, route and border crossing points, organizational issues and the time of the next WG meeting, as well as discussions on the participation of transport and logistics companies in the pilot transportation.

 During the exchange of views, a Plan of Piloting consisting of more than 20 activities, within the framework of which the stages of implementation were stipulated - digital transit and testing the GTrD functional elements and capabilities of the Global Customs Transit Network were presented to the participants of the meeting.

In his turn, Dr. Igor Rounov, ICTD Executive Secretary shared information about the strategic advantages of pilot multimodal transportation using the GTrD, direct, indirect and multiplicative effects for both the government and its institutions, as well as for business and subsequent economic development.

"Since 2020, active work has been carried out to elaborate and prepare the final version of the GTrD Concept, in June 2021, the presentation of the GTrD prototype was held, and since the beginning of 2022, work on the preparation of pilot transportation has jointly begun. As a single multimodal document for international transit transport, the application of GTrD will simplify the transportation process as much as possible," - Mr. A. Assavbayev, TRACECA Secretary General noted.
 
On the outcomes of discussions, the WG participants took note of the information on the draft Global Transit Document (GTrD), approved the first stage of the Plan for implementation of the Pilot Project using the GTrD, given the proposals received from the Working Group members. In addition, the route along which the pilot transportation will be carried out has been determined. An agreement was reached to present during the next Working Group meeting the agreed checkpoints, sections of rail lines and roads along which the route of neighbouring countries (Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan) will pass.

The second Working Group meeting is tentatively scheduled for June 2022, which will also consider the draft Regulations and countries’ proposals.