BOMCA Holds the Third National Steering Group Meeting in Uzbekistan

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On May 18, 2018 BOMCA Programme hosted the National Steering Group (NSG) meeting in Uzbekistan, which gathered main BOMCA national counterparts – Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Coordinating Unit of the European Union’s Technical Assistance Programme under the Cabinet of Ministers, Border Troops of the State Security Services, State Customs Committee, Ministry of Health, State Veterinary Committee and State Inspection for Quarantine Plant under the Cabinet of Ministers, as well as representatives of the EU Delegation and Embassies accredited in the Republic of Uzbekistan and BOMCA programme consortium.

The purpose of the NSG meeting was to discuss the implementation aspects of BOMCA Programme, such as progress achieved, lessons learnt, and modalities of the future activities. The meeting was important not only in terms of discussing plans for the rest of the year, but also laid a foundation for further cooperation and established a forum for presentation of achievements, evaluation of results and valuable feedback from national partners.

As stated in the meeting during three years from June 2015 till June 2018 415 Uzbek beneficiaries took an active part in 51 national and regional activities, organized by BOMCA. National Steering Groups (NSG), consisting of the representatives of the main national beneficiary agencies, has been established in each 5 Central Asian countries. These meetings are held on a regular basis and present an important coordination mechanism for implementation of the programme at the national level.

The first BOMCA operations in Central Asia began in 2003 and since then BOMCA has strengthened the partnership between the Central Asian Governments and agencies in the field of border management. The European Union has allocated a sum of EUR 40.1 million to BOMCA for the period of 2003 – 2019, out of which more than EUR 6.6 million were assigned to its 9thimplementation phase (2015 - 2019).