Kyrgyzstan advances cross-border freight digitization

China News Service, Astana, October 12. According to Kyrgyzstan's Kabal National News Agency, Kyrgyzstan's First Deputy Prime Minister Amanglidiev said at an international forum held in Bishkek on the 12th that Kyrgyzstan is promoting electronic driving permits and introducing artificial intelligence technology into customs operations to improve the efficiency of cross-border freight and customs clearance.

Amanglidyev said that in 2025, Kyrgyzstan and China will exchange a total of 130,000 paper international road transport driving permits. Since January this year, electronic driving permits have been used for road freight between China and Kyrgyzstan. Currently, such electronic documents are also used for freight between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Türkiye. He said that the electronic driving license can help shorten the time for enterprises to handle procedures and wait in line, reduce related costs, and reduce the risk of corruption.

In terms of customs business, he introduced that Kyrgyzstan is building a unified foreign trade digital system and introducing artificial intelligence technology for automatic document review, commodity classification and other services to speed up customs clearance procedures and improve the transparency of customs management.

Amanglidyev said that in the next stage, Kyrgyzstan plans to build a national electronic logistics system to promote information sharing among government departments, transportation companies, logistics companies and foreign trade entities, achieve one-time submission of cargo information, and strengthen electronic management and collaboration among all parties during the transportation of goods.

Amanglidyev also emphasized that promoting digitalization should be combined with ensuring legal trade, increasing national fiscal revenue, and curbing illegal transportation of goods.