Asia-Pacific Countries Plan to Enhance Regional Trade By Going Paperless

More than 30 Asia-Pacific countries have held UN-sponsored 3-day talks in Bangkok, which called for strengthened regional cooperation in trade and investment with a special focus on achieving the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Fourth Session of the Committee on Trade and Investment, a regional policymakers’ forum convened biannually by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), called for continued work in trade facilitation and paperless trade, a renewed focus on potential regional barriers to trade and investment and the ongoing need to integrate the region, especially along the lines of South-South cooperation.

The Committee also called for countries to build capacity so that policymakers could effectively navigate the new global economic landscape.

“Strong, diversified and well-balanced growth and trade, propelled by both external and domestic demand, will be critical to set on course the SDG implementation,” said United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP Shamshad Akhtar in her opening remarks at the Committee.

Akhtar said, “It is an opportune time for the region to take stock of its real trade potential and to take steps to enhance its competitive edge through implementation of enabling policies that fully exploit each country’s economic potential in an inclusive and sustainable manner.”

Discussions at the Committee were informed by findings in the ESCAP Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2015 Supporting Participation in Value Chains released earlier this week.

The report sent a strong message that the Asia-Pacific region needs to respond to slowing global trade growth with new policies that boost competitiveness and productivity to harness the potential for trade created by the spread of Global Value Chains.

ESCAP member States also continued to make good progress on a prospective regional agreement on cross-border paperless trade facilitation.

The regional agreement looks to provide a framework to enable the exchange and mutual recognition of trade-related data and documents in electronic form and facilitate the interoperability of paperless trade systems.

(Source: TonerNews)

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