The Global Transit Document (GTrD) is in the focus of discussions of the international business community

This Round Table, organized in cooperation with the PS IGC TRACECA, was the result of the active efforts of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, the International Center for Transport Diplomacy, the Intergovernmental Council of Road Administrators, IBM Corporation, TradeLens, and TRACECA countries that expressed interest in the Global Transit Document (GTrD) initiative.

The main objectives of the Round Table were an extended presentation of the Global Transit Document (GTrD) and the Digital Customs Transit Network (DCTN) to the business community, as well as an assessment of the overall situation with the functioning of global supply chains in the global and regional context and additional measures recommended to simplify transit and cross-border procedures, assessment of the situation and increasing the role and participation of business in the implementation of various initiatives and projects for the development of international transport corridors.
During the Round Table, “Ensuring intellectual, end-to-end visibility and transparency" video by IBM Corporation was shown to the participants.
The speakers of the Round Table, including representatives of MAERSK in Georgia, IBM UK, Blockchain, TradeLens Onboarding, Mediterranean Shipping Company Georgia and other speakers spoke about the latest achievements in the field of digitalization of multimodal transport corridors in Eurasia and leading global projects aimed at digitalizing international multimodal transport.
In his turn, Dr. Igor Rounov, ICTD Executive Secretary, and Dr. Alexander Zaboev, ICTD Leading Expert presented the main elements with an extended description of the structure, mechanisms and stages of further development of the GTrD to the participants, and also shared information about the organization of the upcoming pilot multimodal transportation under GTrD.

"The Global Transit Document created on the basis of blockchain technology will provide a unique opportunity to ensure the cargo transportation in containers, combining several modes of transport from the point of departure to the destination across several borders without mandatory customs inspection, thereby facilitating international trade. The new multimodal scheme does not represent an alternative or competition to the introduction of existing sectoral and regional systems such as eTIR, eCMR and other electronic documents, since they are used exclusively on certain types of transport, while GTrD is being developed for use in the cargo transportation by containers, regardless of the mode of transport, thereby ensuring multimodality of transportation," stressed Mr A. Assavbayev, TRACECA Secretary General.

On the outcomes of the meeting, the Round Table participants pointed out the necessity to strengthen the dialogue with the interested countries in order to prepare for the implementation of two pilot projects and a detailed feasibility study of the project, which will be the main focus of work on the implementation of the GTrD in 2022.

The next GTrD event will be organized during the Second UN Global Sustainable Transport Conference in Beijing (China) on October 13, 2021 in partnership with the UN-OHRLLS and ICTD and is dedicated to the digitalization of multimodal transit corridors.

It should be reminded that the Presentation of the Global Transit Document Prototype and the pilot project on the TRACECA route took place on June 8, 2021.