Specialists say that thanks to the new equipment, the time spent on the registration of documents has much decreased, and the quality of the customs service has improved. The number of the people and the vehicles passing through the customs posts between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan has much increased.

One of the new pieces of such equipment is a Rapiscan [Rapiscan Systems, from screen] mobile scanner. With the help of the scanning set of equipment, one can see, without opening the lorry, what kind of cargo a lorry is carrying. The new equipment has made the time spent on the customs inspection much shorter. The point is that it has blocked the path of the cargoes that pass secretly through the border.

Yskak Bertay, senior specialist of the Kazygurt customs post, said this equipment scans only five minutes, and within these five minutes one can see everything that is inside a lorry. Look at it; one can see everything in the bus. Everything is seen in the front side, on the bottom, the boxes and all the contents of the boxes. It can be magnified and made smaller.

Passing through the customs post by foot passengers have also been made easier. The installation of the state-of-the-art equipment makes it possible to monitor the customs post and register documents and cargoes much quickly.

Fakhriddin Umarov, a resident of the town of Kentau, said: “This makes registration and carrying out all the customs inspections very fast. If we have much cargo, we pass the customs post within five or 10 minutes; if we have no cargoes, then we just pass through it as we move on.”

The new scanning equipment helped detain nine people this year as they were trying to smuggle drugs. A consignment of contraband goods arriving from Turkey was also seized recently and customs duty for a total sum of 3 billion tenge [US$24m] was exacted. In general, compared to the last year, the profits gained from the region’s customs officials have grown by 13 per cent.

Meyrkhan Satybaldin, chairman of the regional customs department, noted: The treasury received a total of 31 billion tenge [US$248m] this year. The state has received 117 billion tenge [US$936m] in profit since the South Kazakhstan Region customs department was set up.

The Zhibek Zholy [the Silk Road] customs post is also being rebuilt according to international standards. Now, foot passengers and the owners of transit vehicles will not linger there for too long, and opportunities will open up for people to travel freely, along with Uzbekistan, to other foreign countries, too.