Geneva, 21 February 2003
From 29 to 31 January, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE),
in partnership with the UN regional commissions for Africa (ECA) and Western
Asia (ESCWA), the World Bank Group and a number of other international organizations
held the launching Seminar for the project “Capacity Building in Trade Facilitation
and Electronic Business in the Mediterranean” (E-Med Business). The 30 participants
included representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian
Territory and the Syrian Arab Republic (ESCWA region), Algeria, Morocco and
Tunisia (ECA region) and Israel, Malta and Turkey (UNECE region). At the Seminar,
basic concepts on trade facilitation and e-business were examined, including
public – private partnerships, as well as a number of political, technical
and technological aspects. Participants recommended that regional trade facilitation
(PRO) committees be set up in the ECA and ESCWA regions, along the lines of
the SECIPRO, the trade facilitation committee under the Southeast European
Cooperative Initiative (SECI). This could lead to the setting up of an “interregional”
MEDPRO committee. These new committees should significantly strengthen the
e-Med project, and ultimately contribute to the establishment of a free trade
area in the Mediterranean region.
Many Governments now acknowledge the importance for local
companies of modern information technologies for managing international trade
activities. The Lebanese representative at the Seminar reported on the achievements
of his country’s automation of clearance of goods that dropped from an average
of 6.7 days in 1997 to 3.5 in 2001. This potential of the natural advantages
of intra-regional trade in the Mediterranean should be promoted for the benefit
of all countries.
In his opening statement, Mr. P. Garonna, Deputy Executive
Secretary of UNECE noted two interesting statistics related to such savings.
He said that “on average, a cargo ship carries 250 kilograms of paper such
as invoices, bills of lading and so on, just to get through customs. And over
40 per cent of SMEs in Europe think that the Internet does not apply to their
type of enterprise or product. To address these issues, he stressed that the
seminar must focus on capacity-building among the three regional commissions,
taking a bottom-up approach to global integration.
A comprehensive new ‘horizontal’ view of trade and transport
facilitation will be used throughout the project, based on the functional
approach of the supply-chain model, making use of advanced Information and
Communication Technology tools. This view and the supporting training tools
will allow promoting simplified, direct and transparent processes (see figure
below).
Presentations by country managers were extremely useful and
informative. The outline and scope of presentations demonstrated the diversity
of the requirements within the region. Country presentations showed existing
trade facilitation implementation and good practices, such as the ‘Projet
de la Liasse Unique’ in 1997 and the modernization of the transport sector
in 1998 in Tunisia. The Turkish Country Manager presented lessons that could
be learned from existing UNECE initiatives such as the e-Turkey, the SECIPRO
(Southeast European Cooperative Initiative trade promotion body) and ‘e-docs
in foreign trade” project. It was noted that the best practices of the SECIPRO
approach should be expanded to other regions.
Mr. Nabil Safwat presented the strategy of the ESCWA region
to develop and promote recommendations for Trade and Transport Facilitation
(TTF) in the region, to ensure that TTF reforms are user friendly and client
oriented, through the establishment of public and private national trade and
transport facilitation committees. ESCWA may want to consider establishing
an Arab Mashreq Trade and Transport Facilitation Committee (PRO). The Arab
Maghreb may consider the same.
Presentations by the World Customs Organization (WCO) representative
demonstrated the importance of the existing tools and the need for promoting
their availability. UNECE training tools will include Internet links to the
WCO material. Further, the presentation of the audit methodology of the Trade
and Transport facilitation toolkit of the Global Facilitation Partnership
(GFP) will be used in interested countries to address the attitudinal and
procedural aspects of international trade that are essential for a horizontal
approach to trade facilitation.
This interregional Seminar initiated a dynamic process in
which the unique needs of each region were recognized and incorporated into
the project implementation and activity plan.
Prof. Abdoulahab Rezig, representative of the Economic Commission
for Africa, concluded by stressing the uniqueness of having all the Mediterranean
countries around a table and the strong support to the project demonstrated
by all regions, during this three-day seminar. He recalled the statement by
Mr. Garonna the first day, “the fundamental lesson in the dilemma in our work
in particular after September 11 is: Do we want more freedom or more security?
Do we want more democracy or more efficiency? Do we want more participation
and multilateralism or more effectiveness in decision making? Do we want more
competition or more stability? Now we have the duty to respond, we want both,
freedom and security, we want both more democracy and more efficiency, we
want both more competition and more stability.”
For further information, please contact:
Project Coordinator: Jean E. Kubler, UNECE, [email protected]
Web site: http://www.UNemed.org
Ref. ECE/TRADE/03/N01