1. Trade Facilitation & Regional Integration Asia Pacific Perspectives Expert Meeting on Trade Facilitation as an Engine for Development 21 - 23 September 2005 Geneva Geetha Karandawala Chief, Transport Facilitation Section Transport and Tourism Division UNESCAP

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3. 3 Asia Pacific Perspectives & Strategies  Integrated approach to trade & transport facilitation  Joint trade & transport facilitation mechanisms  Guidelines in trade & transport facilitation committees  Empowering & Sustaining  Networking & providing regional platform  Assessing the level of facilitation – Trade Facilitation Framework  Harmonizing legal regimes  Identifying & isolating bottlenecks  Encouraging Multimodal transport & logistics  Asia Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade

4. 4 UNESCAP Trade Facilitation Framework Stage Ai Collect feedback, analyze, assess and prioritize the needs Stage Aii Establish the Facilitation Institutional Structure Stage Bi Revise Trade and Customs Laws and Regulations Stage Bii Simplify, standardize and harmonize import- export and Customs procedures & documents Stage Biii Implement effective trade and Customs enforcement Stage Biv Implement effective information dissemination Stage Bv Apply Information and Communica tion Technology (ICT) Stage Bvi Review and assessment of results Trade Finance Infrastructure Development Asia Pacific Perspectives & Strategies: A guiding tool for trade facilitation

5. 5 Asia Pacific Perspectives & Strategies Harmonizing Legal Regimes Sub Regional Approach Overlapping Obligations Importance of International Conventions UNESCAP Resolution 48/11(land transport Facilitation) Need for Effective and Equitable Participation of Member Countries

6. 6 Distance Time/ cost Transport to border Border crossing Transport to sea port Wait at sea port Sea transport Methodology for international route analysis Asia Pacific Perspectives - Identifying & Addressing Bottlenecks

7. 7 Asia-Pacific Perspectives – Corridor Approach

8. 8 Adopted in November 2003 and opened for signature in Shanghai April 2004 27 member States signed the Agreement 26 signed at Shanghai in April 2004 and Malaysia signed at New York 3 definitive signatures and 9 ratifications or approvals The Agreement entered into force on 4 July 2005 Obligation of Contracting Parties Adopt AH network Negotiating procedures Conform to AH design standards Display AH signs Working Group on the Asian Highway (14-15 December 2005) Provides negotiating forum Proposals for revision of the Network-45 days The Intergovernmental Agreement

9. 9 Corridor Approach Asia-Pacific Perspectives – Corridor Approach

10. 10 Asia-Pacific Perspectives – Integrated Transport with links to gateway ports

11. 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 Asia-Pacific Perspectives – Selected Corridors for study

12. 12 Container block train on TAR-NC Planning and implementation Policy-level EGM (Sep. 2001) MOU signed Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Poland, Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation International Union of Railways (UIC), Organization of Railways Cooperation (OSJD) 1 st Steering Committee (June 2002, Vladivostok) 2 nd Steering Committee (Oct. 2003, Ulaanbaatar) 3 rd Steering Committee (Sep. 2005, Moscow) Asia-Pacific Perspectives – Demonstration Runs

13. 13 United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Moscow Tianjin Ulaan baatar 8-11 November 2003 1,700 km - 75 hours 20 min. 1 22.5 km/h - 541 km/day Vostochny Malaszewicze 6-18 July 2004 10,350 km - 12 days 8 hours 4 35 km/h - 837 km/day Brest Ulaan 15-24 June 2004 7,200 km - 8 days 16 hours 3 35 km/h - 830 km/day Almaty Lianyungang 22-29 April 2004 5,020 km - 7 days 6 hours 2 29 km/h - 692 km/day Asia-Pacific Perspectives – Implementation of Demonstration Runs

14. 14 0 100 200 300 400 500 02000400060008000 Distance (km) Time (hours) Compression: Year 2002 statistics Year 2004 Demonstration run Brest 0 Km Krasone Naushki 6,778 km Ulaanbaatar 7,200 Km Sukhbaatar 6,798 Km 2002: 15 days 2004: 8 days 16 hrs Asia-Pacific Perspectives – Route Analysis Comparison 2002 &-2004

15. 15 Euro-Asian Rail Routes Joint project with ECE Euro-Asian Rail Routes

16. 16 Euro-Asian Road Routes Joint project with ECE Euro-Asian Road Routes

17. 17 Focus countries Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Objective: Enhance national capacity Areas of Technical assistance: - Establish effective coordination and cooperation mechanism amongst stake holders - Applying the time cost model on specific routes - Simplification of procedures and alignment of documents used in international trade transactions - Harmonization of facilitation agreements - Application of ICT in enhancing facilitation of trade and transport. Capacity Building Project

18. 18 Thank you for your attention For further information http://www.unescap.org/ttdw