SESSION 7
TRANS-ASIAN CONNECTIVITY
Daniel Kroos
Senior Programme Officer for Energy Security at the OSCE Secretariat, Vienna
Daniel Kroos has more than 15 years of experience of managing substantial projects in the Caspian Sea region and Central Asia in the spheres of oil & gas, investments, renewables, and trade and connectivity for private companies and international organizations. He currently serves as Senior Programme Officer for Energy Security at the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna.
Larisa Kislyakova
Chairperson of the Central Asia Transport and Logistics Partnership; Chairman of the Board of the Tajikistan Union of Professional Consultants
She has thirty years of experience in the field of foreign economic and foreign trade activities.
She was the head of the Working group on the accession of the Republic of Tajikistan to the WTO.
Expert in trade, transport, and transit services.
Mario Apostolov
Regional Advisor – Trade, Economic Cooperation and Integration
Mr. Apostolov provides advisory support for the Trade and Economic Cooperation and Integration sub-programmes of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), concentrating on support to the transition economies in trade facilitation and the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA). He has been servicing intergovernmental bodies of experts and policy makers in these areas for over 20 years. He has also provided UNECE’s support to other regional cooperation networks: in Southeast Europe and the Eurasian Economic Union. He has expertise in national trade facilitation bodies, the Single Window for export, import, and transit clearance, regional trade integration, trade facilitation reforms and the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, as well as digitalization of multimodal transport data and document exchange. Mr Apostolov has a M.A. from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies at the University of Geneva. He teaches a course on the Dynamics of Regional Cooperation and Diplomacy at the International University in Geneva. His publications cover such diverse areas as trade facilitation, regional integration, and the geopolitics of Christian-Muslim relations.
Viacheslav Vikentyev
Deputy General Delegate to the IRU Permanent Delegation to Eurasia
As a Deputy General Delegate to the IRU Permanent Delegation to Eurasia, based in Moscow, Mr. Vikentyev deals with key IRU activities in the region with the focus on TIR, border crossing facilitation and streamlined customs procedures helping the road transport industry unlock the trade potential of the economies.
IRU is the world’s road transport organisation, promoting economic growth, prosperity and safety through the sustainable mobility of people and goods. Founded in 1948, IRU has members and activities in more than 100 countries on every continent. IRU’s four core objectives are to facilitate trade, promote mobility, to make transport more sustainable and to value safety – for people and goods. IRU conceived TIR in 1949, and manages the system to this day.
With customs and civil service educational background, Mr. Vikentyev has 7 years experience of working at Russian customs and 8 years experience in private sector involved in foreign trade and commercial operations, legal support, and managing the customs warehouse in the latter capacity.
Mr. Vikentyev has been an external expert at OSCE and a visiting lecturer at the Russian Customs Academy and MGIMO University.
Max Ee
Transport and Logistics Consultant, Singapore
Max Ee is a transport and logistics consultant based in Singapore. He has 23 years of experience in the domain of supply chain management, international trade facilitation and cross-border logistics. Max holds a Master of Science in Logistics, Graduate Diploma in Systems Analysis and a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) 2nd Upper Honours, awarded from National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, both ranked 11th and 13th in QS World University Rankings 2021. His clientele included World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Asian Development Bank and International Trade Center. Max is a Certified Blockchain Consultant.
His career started at Agility Logistics where he worked in all operations levels for integrated logistics for Multi-National Clients. After approximately 8 years in the private sector, he was invited by Asian Development Bank to advise on international logistics development for Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC), a multilateral platform for supporting economic integration and growth of the Central Asia region. During his many years of consulting work, Max spent much time in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on trade logistics and development strategies. In 2009, Max was in the founding team that pioneered the Corridor Performance Measurement and Monitoring (CPMM) tool that collects empirical data on transport time and cost for freight movements on road and rail across Central Asia. The results are presented in the annual Ministerial Meeting.
Tatiana Rey-Bellet
Director, TIR & Transit, Switzerland
In her role as Director – TIR & Transit, Tatiana Rey-Bellet leads IRU’s work on TIR and transit solutions from the Geneva Headquarters. She joined IRU in 2012 and, before taking up her current role, managed a range of projects, including leading countries through the TIR implementation process and making the system operational for customs authorities and business.
Before joining IRU, Tatiana spent almost a decade in the development sector, managing health, sanitation, and environment projects under the umbrella of UNICEF. She also held key management positions in the private education sector in Pakistan and was in charge of technical communications at a marine equipment export firm in Russia. She holds a Master’s Degree in Oriental Studies from Saint Petersburg State University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation.
Tamar Jejeia Satterwhite
Attorney Advisor-International
Tamar Jejeia Satterwhite is an Attorney Advisor with the Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she works on Central Asia programs. Prior to joining CLDP, Tamar worked in the Global Trade & Policy Practice of a law firm in Washington, D.C., where she focused on import and export controls, Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) and Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) ruling requests, and other areas of international trade law.
Prior to her law firm experience, Tamar served as an Attorney-Advisor in the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of the General Counsel, Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce advising the International Trade Administration (ITA) on international trade compliance matters related to technical barriers to trade, standards, good regulatory practices, and trade in services.
Tamar has also served as an Attorney-Fellow in the Executive Office of the President, Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Office of the General Counsel where she handled a wide range of legal issues related to international trade. Additionally, Tamar provided legal assistance and technical expertise to the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center at USTR working on Russia-related trade enforcement issues.
Tamar received her juris doctorate from The George Washington University Law School and her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, in International Studies from Austin College. Tamar is fluent in Georgian and Russian.
SESSION 8
E-COMMERCE AND LAST MILE DELIVERY
Aikanysh Saparalieva
General Manager of Glovo, Kyrgyzstan
Aikanysh Saparalieva is a General Manager of Glovo Kyrgyzstan, the co-founder, and former president of the e-commerce Association of the Kyrgyz Republic. The national consultant for ITC on developing eCommerce strategy for Kyrgyzstan.
She has received her master’s degree in e-business management at the University of Warwick, UK. Aikanysh has interned at the e-government branch of UNDESA at United Nations Headquarters in New York and was involved in developing the UN E-government development survey 2018. Aikanysh is the initiator of the establishment of the e-commerce Association in Kyrgyzstan which was launched to foster the e-commerce development in Kyrgyzstan, to enhance the export potential through cross-border e-commerce, and to become a platform for dialogue between the online business community, Government, and international partners. As a leader of the e-commerce Association, Aikanysh was involved in developing e-commerce law and is frequently invited guest speaker and a catalyst for empowering women and youth in Kyrgyzstan.
Erica Libertelli
Executive Director at eCommerce Institute
Erica Libertelli is Executive Director at eCommerce Institute. The eCommerce Institute is non-profit organization that trains executives in ecommerce and promotes and cultivates online ecosystems around the world, working with leading donor agencies and businesses. Born in Buenos Aires and having played a key role in Latin America’s ecommerce ecosystem over the past nearly 20 years, eCommerce Institute has scaled its services being Latin America to other emerging markets including Central Asia.
Filip Stoyanovich
Chief of Party, USAID's Future Growth Initiative (FGI) for Central Asia
Mr. Stoyanovich has been involved in economic development in Europe and Eurasia for over 25 years. He specializes in enhancing competitiveness and clusters, IT, startup ecosystems, agribusiness and tourism sector development and promotion, investment promotion, Government relations, National Policy development, management and administration of international development programs, regional trade and business cooperation, business associations, public – private sector cooperation and SME development. Since 2007, Mr. Stoyanovich has been Chief of Party of three USAID funded regional programs, the Regional Competitiveness Initiative (RCI), the Regional Economic Growth (REG), and currently the FGI. In this role, he has developed continuous professional relationships with stakeholders throughout the region, including donors, private sector, think tanks, and business associations. He has collaborated with international donors and organizations such as the European Union, EBRD, IFC, CBI, SIDA, Swiss, ITC, UNDP, World Bank, GIZ, UNWTO, and UNESCO.
Geesche Laksola
Head of Business Development, Youredi
Geesche Laksola previously served as Head of CarreitConnect Program at Unifaun and Itella Corporation (Posti Oyj) as Development Manager . Youredi is one of the leading service providers in Supply Chain and Logistics integrations. More than a handful of the leading shippers, carriers, and data providers have trusted Youredi to deliver their most valuable data flows to run through Youredi’s iPaaS.
Kati Suominen
Founder and CEO, Nextrade Group
Kati Suominen is Founder and CEO of Nextrade Group, which helps governments, multilateral development banks, and Fortune 500 technology companies enable trade through technology. She has built dozens of data and analytical products and pilot initiatives and eight global initiatives and public-private partnerships to enable ecommerce and digitization of trade, most recently Alliance for eTrade Development I and II between 14 leading companies and USAID to enable ecommerce in developing nations. She also serves as Adjunct Professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the leading US think-tank. She is the author and editor of over 100 papers and 10 peer-reviewed books with leading academic presses, most recently Revolutionizing World Trade: How Disruptive Technologies Open Opportunities for All (Stanford University Press, 2019).
Muzaffar Karabaev
Co-founder & CEO at zip24 (Shipox+Storfox)
Muzaffar Karabaev is Co-founder & CEO at zip24 (Shipox+Storfox). cost effective pay-as-you-go global SaaS offering. Prior to this, he founded Wing.Delivery/Wing.ae, on-demand delivery/courier e-Marketplace (Dubai-based), which was invested by Souq.com and acquired by Amazon in 2018. He has also founded and developed SaaS SME ERP business automation SaaS offering, – kpi.com. Prior to that, he has co-founded UzReport.com and UzJobs.com, largest Business Portal/Media in Uzbekistan.
Myrza Sokurov
Strategy & Operations Advisory Director and PwC Eurasia
Pasha Karim
Regional Manager at Globalink Logistics Group
Pasha Karim is Regional Manager at Globalink Logistics Group, where he has served in various roles since 2005. Established in 1994, Globalink Logistics is an integral part of the Eurasian freight forwarding, transportation and logistics industry, providing optimal end-to-end transportation and supply chain solutions to a diverse client base.
Steven Pope
Vice President Customs & Regulatory Affairs, Global Express Association & DHL Express Europe, and Head of DHL Go Trade initiative
Steven Pope is Vice President Customs & Regulatory Affairs, Global Express Association & DHL Express Europe, and Head of DHL Go Trade initiative. Before joining DHL, Steven spent 26 years in the Public Sector, working for HM Customs & Excise, HM Treasury and the IMF, in areas such as, trade compliance, taxation policy and trade reform. In 2015 Steven joined the Steering Group of the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, a public private partnership focusing on helping countries to ratify and implement the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.
