From 25 to 30 January 2016, the INCU Baku Regional Office held its first Winter School and Internship/Fellowship 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Event Summary
The 5-day Winter School and Internship/Fellowship program 2016 included:
- Work at the Baku Regional Office to assist Secretariat with various activities and tasks;
- Participation in an 2.5-day workshop/lectures;
- Delivery of a presentation about their organisation/institution;
- Participation in Skype video conference with Shanghai Customs College students;
- Visits to the WCO European Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB) and Azerbaijan Customs Academy; and
- Social and cultural activities.
The participants in the first intake of the INCU Baku Regional Office Winter Internship were three 2nd year undergraduate students: Ms Anastasiya Kazanskaya, Ms Elizaveta Leontieva, Mr Dmitry Korol from the North-Western Institute of Management (St Petersburg, Russia) and their academic curator Senior Lecturer, Dr Boris Kabylinskiy. The first participant in the INCU Baku Regional Office Winter Fellowship was Ms Natalia Ikonnikova, National Customs Manager – Russia, GEFCO representing GEFCO’s Russian Office (Moscow, Russia).
Overall, about 40 participants took part in the INCU Regional Office Winter School 2016 including students and two lecturers from Azerbaijan Customs Academy, students from Baku State University, Azerbaijan State Economic University and Baku Higher Oil School, and customs officers of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.
INCU Workshop
As part of the INCU Regional Office Lecture Series initiative, the Baku Regional Office Winter School 2016 program also included a 2.5-day training course/workshop from 26 to 28 January 2016 titled “International Trade Transactions and Documentation”, which was hosted by the WCO European ROCB and delivered by Dr Mikhail Kashubsky, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Customs and Excise Studies (CCES), Charles Sturt University, Australia.
Topics covered in this course included: risks in international trade transactions, role of freight forwarders, documentation used in international trade transactions, international contracts of sale, international commercial terms (Incoterms), carriage of goods, international payments, insurance and dispute resolution.
Other Activities
INCU internship and fellowship program participants were also given an opportunity to deliver presentations about their organisations and activities. Students of the North-Western Institute of Management presented their new student magazine “Customs Herald” and INCU e-Library project and Ms Natalia Ikonnikova of GEFCO delivered a presentation about GEFCO’s history, services and activities.
On 28 January 2016, after the completion of the course, a group of students from Baku State University, Baku Higher Oil School and Azerbaijan Customs Academy were given a tour of the INCU Baku Regional Office and, together with the Russian students, participated in the “Baku-Shanghai Skype Bridge” video conference call with Chinese students from Shanghai Customs College (SCC). Students shared their experiences of studying customs administration including the types of subjects they are currently studying, modes of studying, research projects and extracurricular activities. They also talked about practical training and future career plans. SCC students also provided an overview of their internship roles on the INCU Secretariat.
The INCU wishes to thank North-Western Institute of Management and GEFCO for participation of their staff and students in the first intake of the INCU Regional Office Winter School/Internship and Fellowship program, and the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan for its support.
