ALMATY, Kazakhstan - An INTERPOL project worth EUR 3 million, funded by the European Union (EU), was officially closed today following the successful expansion of access to INTERPOL's tools to frontline police across Central Asia.
Launched in September 2008, the “EU-INTERPOL: Support to INTERPOL in Central Asia” project has seen the connection of more than 50 sites throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States to I-24/7, INTERPOL’s secure global communications system.
Using technical solutions developed by INTERPOL, officers in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan can now instantly access and carry out real time searches of INTERPOL’s global databases, including its Stolen and Lost Travel Documents which currently contains more than 23 million entries from 154 countries.
A ceremony to mark the successful conclusion of the project hosted by the Central Asian Regional Information and Co-ordination Centre (CARICC) was attended by representatives of the project partners and supporters Mr Mustaq Hussain, Head of Trade Section of the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan, Mr Noboru Nakatani, INTERPOL’s Director of Information Systems and Technology and the Heads of the INTERPOL National Central Bureaus (NCB) in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Mr Nakatani said that the EU-funded INTERPOL Project combined the key elements for successful international police co-operation, ‘by providing the necessary modern technology for Central Asian police officers to access INTERPOL’s secure global communication system and databases.’
“To ensure the widest possible use of INTERPOL tools and services, it is a priority to invest in the capacity of our National Central Bureaus and to frontline officer,” said Mr Nakatani.
Mr Mustaq Hussein, Head of Trade Section of the EU-Delegation to Kazakhstan, added, “Enhancing the operational capacities of the police is a joint objective agreed in the EU-Central Asia Action Plan. The concrete results of this project – a global police communication system in more than 50 remote sites in Central Asia –will help to fulfill the goals of the Action Plan.”
A key objective of the project was to boost the existing capabilities of Central Asian NCBs and law-enforcement agencies to increase regional and international law enforcement co-operation and better support the national police forces of the ENPI Central Asia region to fight national and international crime more effectively.