South-south and triangular cooperation - Germany

This case story in the category of trade facilitation is a successful case of three-party South-South cooperation in the area of removing administrative barriers to trade, involving considerable know-how transfer from an African country to Central Asian countries, facilitated by GIZ on behalf of BMZ.

Central Asia is generally accepted as one of the most sensitive regions for international trade due to its distance from the sea and the heavy burden of bureaucracy. The Kyrgyz government used practical examples and consultants from Senegal to introduce a pre-customs single window as a trade facilitation measure. The Senegalese model of a single window was found to be far better suited to the Central Asian context than examples and expertise from the more classical, leading trading nations. Since the start of the programme in 2006, Kyrgyzstan has reduced by 60% the selection of forms that need to be filled out for foreign trade. Tajikistan also shows similarly impressive results. German development cooperation played a key role in promoting and financing this South-South cooperation. The knowledge resulting from the project has since been used in other countries both in the region and in Central America.