The event was organized by the Public Council under the State Customs Service of Ukraine (chaired by Halyna Vdovina) and the EU Public Finance Management Support Programme for Ukraine (EU4PFM) with the assistance from and participation of the State Customs Service, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, RST of the Ministry of Finance and Odesa Customs.
The main purpose of the event was to provide a communication platform for the business representatives, officials of the Ministry of Finance and the State Customs Service, Ukrainian and international experts to answer specific practical questions about Ukraine’s accession to the common transit procedure and NCTS, as well as the AEO Programme.
The experts participating in the event were:

• Oleksandr Moskalenko, Director of the Customs Policy Department of the Ministry of Finance,

• Oksana Nikanorova, Adviser to the Deputy Minister of Finance — Coordinator of Customs Reforms,

• Serhii Demchenko, Director of the Department for Introduction of the International Transit System of the State Customs Service,

• Andrii Teplyi, Head of the AEO Support Office of the Department for Organization of Customs Control and Customs Clearance of the State Customs Service,

• Alina Brendak, National Coordinator for Common Transit, Deputy Director of the Department — Head of the International Transit System Development Unit of the Department for Introduction of the International Transit System of the State Customs Service.
• On the part of the EU Public Finance Management Support Programme for Ukraine (EU4PFM), the event was attended by International Key Expert Vytenis Ališauskas and experts Konstiantyn Bilchuk and Oleksii Vorobyov.

Commenting on the opinion that Ukrainian business is not in a hurry to take advantage of the common transit procedure and the AEO Programme, EU4PFM’s International Expert Vytenis Ališauskas said: “It’s a common situation when businesses take a long time to look closely at changes and new opportunities, such as the AEO Programme and the common transit facilitation system (NCTS). At first, it was the case of the EU countries as well. Now it is the case of Ukraine. But I want to share my experience: those who started first usually win. The more customs simplification permits the company gets, the less time and money it spends and the higher the company’s competitiveness is”.
Business representatives asked dozens of difficult, sometimes sharp questions, and received comprehensive and informative answers in turn.
The workshop initiators sincerely thank all the participants, especially to Public Council Expert, People’s Deputy of Ukraine of VIII convocation Tetiana Ostrikova for the excellent and lively moderation of the event, and Council Chairperson Halyna Vdovina for the great efforts in organizational and intellectual support to the workshop and its co-moderation.
This workshop has been a follow-up event to a series of EU4PFM events organized for the business representatives to cover NCTS and AEO-related issues.