Improving the Border Agency Cooperation
Among the OIC Member States for Facilitating Trade
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Step 2. The most significant benefits of BAC can be achieved from stronger collaboration with
neighboring countries. As a consequence, it is often reasonable to explore first how to speed up
the trade and logistics flows, and cut down the administrative and other costs, with one or
more of the neighboring countries:
 Establish One-Stop Border Posts (OSBPs), starting with a ”light version”, and moving
later to a ”full version” (e.g. cases Uganda-Kenya versus Zambia-Zimbabwe);
 Strengthen the transit arrangements and practices; consider using e-seal and tracking
technologies (e.g. cases Albania and Uganda);
 Harmonize and simplify rules relating to weighing, weight certificates, technical
conformity of vehicles, goods, registrations, drivers licenses, insurances, and other
issues of cross-border logistics operations (e.g. case Vietnam-Laos);
 Launch small-scale pilots that focus on specific commodities, a single border crossing,
and a selected group of trusted transport operators; and
 Establish a joint task force to plan, implement and monitor BAC in various areas of
border management.
Step 3. The third step of the BAC-roadmap focuses on daily practicalities that have a
tremendous impact on the speed and predictability of cross-border traffic. Neighboring
countries should agree and implement the following practical solutions to ensure effective and
efficient border management:
 Harmonize operating hours at border crossings;
 Look for opportunities for mutual recognition of border controls (e.g., security checks
and phytosanitary and product safety controls);
 Collect systematic feedback about bottlenecks, complexities and other problems that
companies face when managing their cross-border supply chains; and
 Set up communication channels for reporting mismanagement and negligence of
border control officers at the border.
Step 4. The fourth step is to consider various modes of collaboration that are not clearly
visible for supply chain operators but that have nevertheless a significant impact on the speed
and predictability of cross-border logistics. Again, these measures should be arranged between
neighboring countries first:
 Build connectivity between the IT systems of customs administrations at the both
sides of the border to enable fast and cost-efficient exchange of data and intelligence
(e.g. case Uganda);
 Agree on protocols for exchanging law enforcement sensitive information between
border control foreign authorities (e.g. case Albania and the EU);
 Enable collaborative procurement, maintenance and use of detection technologies and
other equipment at border-crossings;
 Establish a continuous and systematic program for cross-training personnel of
customs and other border agencies at both sides of the border;
 Agree on rules for empowering personnel of customs and other border control
agencies to carry out a broader range of border controls (e.g., Norway and Sweden);
and
 Establish a legal framework and operational capability to support collaborative
criminal investigation and prosecution procedures (e.g. case Mexico-US).