A workshop on CEFTA Management Information System held in Belgrade, Serbia

The Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunication of Serbia, who chairs this year CEFTA Subcommittee on nontariff and technical barriers to trade, together with CEFTA Secretariat held in Belgrade, on 22nd September, Workshop on the upgrading of CEFTA Transparency Pack in the framework of new CEFTA Management Information System.

The main objective of this workshop was:

• To collect information from authorized users of CEFTA Transparency Pack about their experience in using this database;
• To explore the possibilities for improvement of existing CEFTA Market Access Barriers Database;
• To get acquainted with the overall concept of the CEFTA MIS, its benefits and opportunities;
• To present possible ways of integration of the CEFTA MIS with the SEED (Secure Electronic Exchange of Data) and other trade related databases.

Participants from CEFTA parties, who are familiar with usage of Transparency Pack, which allows them electronic notification of all types of trade related measures, discussed together with CEFTA experts, the purpose and the content of the new MIS, as comprehensive user’s friendly web-tool, which will integrate the existing data base with other trade related electronic data bases, like SEED.

The delegates from CEFTA parties gave numerous very relevant suggestions to CEFTA experts which will be used in improving of existing CEFTA transparency pack and preparation of Terms of reference for new CEFTA Management information system.

At the end of the workshop are produced concrete conclusions and recommendation which will serve to create really useful Management information system relevant for the process of trade facilitation in the CEFTA region and wider.