In 2008/2009 Finnmark Chamber of Commerce (Kirkenes, Norway) in cooperation with Northern CCI has created the project, that was aimed to make the process of customs clearance of goods at the border crossing stations Storskog/Borisoglebsk more simple and rapid. At the end of these project there were developed some recommendations for the participants of the foreign-economic activity and for customs officers.
As a result of this project, based on previous experience and information, that was collected from both Russian and Norwegian companies, the customs clearance questions became the part of joint declaration between two Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Russia and Norway, Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Jonas Gahr Støre, and these questions were included into the following work plan, that was aimed to favorable legal, trade, economic and other conditions for the strengthening of the Norwegian-Russian border cooperation for 2011-2015.
As the participants of foreign economic activity has not noticed noticeable improvement in the conditions for customs clearance in Storskog / Borisoglebsk when crossing the border through these checkpoints, Finnmark Chamber of Commerce and Northern CCI have developed advanced custom project, not only fixing the participants of foreign trade experience, but making specific comparisons between checkpoints Borisoglebsk / Storskog and other checkpoints located on the border between Finland and Russia.
Together with Finnmark Chamber of Commerce and Northern CCI Norwegian-Russian Chamber of Commerce, that provided consulting support in the preparation and implementation of the project, was invited to participate in the project.
The plan of the project was based on 4 main tasks:
- Documentation of the specific problems that the participants of foreign economic activity face with at the border crossing station
- Comparison of rules and procedures between border-cross station Borisoglebsk and other Russian checkpoints located on the border between Finland and Russia
- Evaluation of technical equipment Storskog / Borisoglebsk
- Organization of the seminar on the ATA Carnet for customs officers and exporting companies of the Murmansk region
More than that one of the main aims of the realization of this project was to make border-cross station Borisoglebsk / Storskog competitive, using the best practices of customs points along the border between Russia and Finland
To achieve these goals and recommendations there were made the following main activities of the project:
- there was organized the survey of participants of the FEA - enterprises and organizations of Murmansk and Murmansk region
- there was organized the seminar on the practice of проведен семинар по практике registration and issue ATA Carnets and their application in international cooperation for the temporary export of professional equipment, models or samples for participation in foreign exhibitions and other international events. In the seminar the specialists on ATA Carnets from the CCI RF, the representatives of Murmansk Customs, companies-exporters and other participants of FEA, specialist from Northern CCI and Finnmark CC were participated.
- there was provided the comparison between cross-border station Storskog / Borisoglebsk with cross-border stations on the border between Russia and Finland in Vyborg district (check-point Torfyanovka / Vaalimaa, check-point Brusnichnoe / Nuijamaa and check-point Svetogorsk/Imatra) and also
- other events on the project were organized and held, including meetings with participation of representatives of Customs, regional and federal authorities, Government of Murmansk region, companies – exporters and other participants of FEA.
The recommendations can be summarized with five main points regarding
- Improvement of the general competence
- Improvement of the general service
- Improvement of the information to the users of the customs services at Borisoglebsk
- The Norwegian border crossing station at Storskog must also focus on learning by best practice, quality and to improve the information given to exporters. The situation is similar at the Russian side of the border
- Improvement of the use of modern technology and infrastructure at Borisoglebsk and Storskog