[Index]
UN LAUNCHES MAJOR TRADE FACILITATION PROJECT
FOR MEDITERRANEAN REGION
Geneva, 28 June 2002
The United Nations this week launches a US$ 600,000 trade facilitation
project for non-European-Union Mediterranean countries. The two-year project
will help countries become more competitive in regional and global markets
by simplifying their trade procedures and developing their use of electronic
commerce.
Spearheading the project is the UN Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE), which is a world leader in trade facilitation and e-business
standards development. Partners in the project include the UN's regional economic
commissions for Africa and western Asia, the World Bank Group and a number
of other international organizations.
"This project will be carried out in a truly integrated
manner", says Project Coordinator, Jean Kubler. "The coordinated
action by three of the UN's regional commissions - Europe, Africa, western
Asia - will help build a critical mass of existing knowledge, and work for
the benefit of the region. We hope the experience we gain from this project
and the methodology we're using can later be transferred to other regions".
Globalization and rapidly advancing transport, telecommunications
and information technologies are putting increasing pressure on export-oriented
countries on the Mediterranean rim. The competitiveness of these countries
is being affected by complex and opaque official procedures that continue
to increase costs and slow down delivery of goods. And companies with limited
access to electronic business technologies are seriously disadvantaged in
today's fast-moving business world.
Under the project, technical assistance will be given to Governments
for simplifying, harmonizing and automating a variety of official procedures
that affect trade. In addition, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
will be provided with multimedia training tools for learning the basics of
supply-chain management and electronic business.
To identify the trade opportunities and challenges in the region,
the UNECE will organize a regional stakeholder seminar, which will be followed
by interviews with public officials, using the World Bank's Trade and Transport
Facilitation toolkit.
"Trade development in the southern and eastern belt of
the Mediterranean is a prerequisite for promoting growth and employment here"
says ESCWA's Nabil Safwat, project focal point for western Asia.
"By promoting and implementing an integrated approach
to simplifying trade procedures in non-EU European countries in the Mediterranean
region, through internationally agreed norms and standards, the objectives
of the project are complementary to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership launched
by the European Commission, which advocates creating an area of shared prosperity
through the progressive establishment of a free-trade area between the EU
and its partners and among the Mediterranean partners themselves" says
Béatrice Labonne, Senior Advisor, UN Department of Economic and Social
Affairs.
Abdoulahab Rezig, Director of the North Africa Sub-regional
Development Centre of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, believes that
the initiative will also help implement the recommendations made by the entrepreneurs
who attended the North Africa Investment Forum, held in Casablanca earlier
this year.
Within the scope of the project, UNECE has developed cooperation
agreements with the International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO (ITC), the "Association
des Chambres de Commerce et d'Industrie de la Méditerranée"
(ASCAME), and the "Ecole Supérieure de Commerce, Grenoble (ESC-Grenoble).
For further information, please contact:
Project Coordinator: Jean E. Kubler, UNECE, [email protected]
or:
Nabil Safwat, ESCWA, [email protected]
Abdoulahab Rezig, ECA, [email protected]
World Bank Group, [email protected]
Web site: http://www.unetrades.net
Participating in the project are:
Economic Commission for Europe
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
Economic Commission for Africa
International Trade Centre/UNCTAD/WTO
World Bank Group
Ref: ECE/TRADE/02/05