The objective of the project is to strengthen the capacities of developing countries and countries with economies in transition to facilitate legitimate border crossing, by means of increased secure electronic exchange of information between Customs administrations. Simultaneously, the project will further secure the supply chain and the government revenues related to the international transport of goods. Ultimately, this project will contribute to increasing the cooperation between Customs administrations and promote the use of international standard electronic messages, in particular, for transit operations.On the basis of existing international standards on transit related information, such as those used and defined in the framework of the eTIR project, the project will deliver a Customs-to-Customs (C2C) exchange platform. Moreover, at least five pilot countries will be provided with technical assistance contracts to connect their ICT systems with the newly developed platform. Furthermore, technical workshops to be held in each region will build capacity of developing countries and countries with economies in transition to maximise the benefits offered by the C2C exchange platform, to increase their electronic exchange of Customs information with neighbouring countries as well as to adopt international standards when it comes to electronic messages. Such cross-border electronic exchange of transit related Customs information will not only streamline border crossing procedures but also improve risk management. The adoption of existing international standards for electronic transit related messages will also be promoted and will further facilitate the work of transport operators.Expert groups, workshops and a seminar will ensure during the whole project the exchange of best practices, capacity building and, at the end, the dissemination of the project results. The pilot countries will serve as examples and there experience will encourage additional countries to link up to the C2C exchange platform with the view to, ultimately, fully computerize transit operations globally.The proposal is consistent with the scope and priorities of the strategic frameworks for 2012-2013 of relevant subprogrammes of UNECE, UNESCAP, UNECA, UNESCWA and UNECLAC and is directly linked to the Internationally Agreed Development Goals (IADGs), including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Development Agenda. The project builds on the experience of the UNECE Working Party on Customs Questions affecting Transport (WP.30) and, in particular, eight years of work of the Informal Ad hoc Expert Group on Conceptual and Technical Aspects of Computerization of the TIR Procedure (WP.30/GE.1).