On April 17, 2023, representatives of the State Customs Service of Turkmenistan met with the authorized persons of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program on the CAREC Improved Transit System and Common Information Exchange (CATS/CIS) project.

The meeting was held at the request of the State Customs of Turkmenistan, during which it was announced of Turkmenistan to join the pilot project CATS/OOI and that the State Customs Service of Turkmenistan was identified as the coordinating agency for this project.

The parties discussed further practical implementation steps and reviewed the text of the Memorandum of Understanding on CATS/ISO.

CATS/SHS is a Harmonized Electronic System for Controlling the Movement of Goods in Transit through CAREC Member States, modeled after the New Computerized Transit System (NCTS) of the European Union (EU). The goal of the project is to improve the security of the supply chain in the CAREC region, as well as to reduce the overall costs of transit trade.