he Customs Service has developed the vision document on the Single Customs Office in Customs, to be implemented within the Twinning European Project. The Concept of the Single Customs Office of the Customs Authority was presented at an interinstitutional working meeting attended by Deputy Customs Director Iurie Ceban, Twinning Resident Adviser Valdas Dovydenas, Italian Customs and Monopoly Agency experts and representatives of the authorities issuers of permissive documents required for customs clearance.

According to the concept presented, the UNIQUE COUNTER would integrate the acts issued by seven authorities. These are the Public Services Agency, the National Agency for Food Safety, the Medicines and Medical Devices Agency, the National Agency for Energy Regulation, the Environmental Agency of MADRM, the National Agency for Regulation of Nuclear and Radiological Activities and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Currently, in order to perform a customs clearance for a particular type of cargo, the economic agent or the customs broker must request a series of permissive acts from several agencies, which he then attaches to the customs declaration. Once the Single Window is implemented, all the documents will be submitted to a one-stop shop and the system will automatically be distributed to all authorities concerned.

The new system will also allow the creation of a "cabinet of the economic agent", where not only permissive documents, but also other documents required for the customs clearance procedure (contracts, CMR, invoices, certificates of origin, etc.)

Applying the "UNIQUE COUNTER" principle will streamline monitoring and control over the operations carried out, as well as ensure greater transparency and predictability.

The Twinning project "Supporting the Modernization of the Customs Service of the Republic of Moldova in Accordance with the Requirements of the Association Agreement" was launched on 21 November 2017. The overall objective of the project is to support the Republic of Moldova in the preparation for the implementation of the Single Window New Transit Computerized Transit System (NCTS), the conditions set out in the chapter on the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) of the Moldova-EU Association Agreement.

The project, planned for two years, has a budget of one million euros, the money being provided by the European Union.

The implementing partners of the project are the Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania and the Customs and Monopoly Agency of the Italian Republic.