Regional : Support for Implementing the Action Plan for Transport and Trade Facilitation in the Greater Mekong Subregion (Cluster TA)

Industry and trade / Trade and services

Transport / Transport policies and institutional development

The C-R-PATA's impact will be a GMS subregion that is more integrated as a production base and market.

The C-R-PATA outcome will be improved coordinated border management, transit procedures, and implementation of traffic rights in the GMS corridors.

The Cluster R-PATA is envisaged as comprising of three successive subprojects that will enhance transport and trade facilitation in GMS. The first subproject, for $2 m equivalent, will be implemented from 2010-12. Conditioned on satisfactory progress, the second and third subprojects for $1.85 million each are expected to be implemented over 2012-14 and 2014-16 respectively.

The cluster TA will have 10 outputs, divided into three categories: transport facilitation (4 outputs), trade facilitation (4 outputs), and others (2 outputs, namely capacity development and legal and regulatory development). Transport and trade facilitation constitute two distinct output streams, which intersect in support for customs and related procedures at borders, including support for the GMS Custom Transit System. While all three subprojects will work towards the cluster outputs, there will be sequencing among outputs and, within each output, in the activities undertaken under different subprojects.

Updates to this project are in (Project No 44174-022)

Implementation of Subproject 1 has been proceeding satisfactorily. A midterm review was conducted to ensure the implementation of the GMS TTF Action plan takes into account changes that have emerged in the GMS and ASEAN since 2011. As part of the MTR process, a Development Partners (DP) Meeting was also held in April 2014 to discuss priorities in supporting TTF and areas of DP collaboration for effective and efficient interventions. Below is a summary of the TA achievements:

A. For transport facilitation, the TA provided support for the ratification of additional Cross Border Transport Agreement annexes and protocols, streamlining of Single-Stop Inspection (SSI) procedures, exchange of bilateral traffic rights, agreement on the extension of the East-West Economic Corridor, the establishment of the GMS Freight Transport Association (FRETA) and analyses of transport corridors in 2012, and the endorsement of a Three-year Strategic Blueprint for TTF in the GMS to support implementation of the next phase of TTF measures

B. For trade facilitation, assessment of trade flows was organized and subsequently published as a book, "Trade and Trade Facilitation in the GMS", which was launched at the 20th Anniversary celebration of the GMS program in September 2012. At the same time a number of consultants were recruited to conduct an assessment of transport sector and logistics underlying the regional trade flows. These assessments have provided valuable inputs into the development of new directions for the GMS program. AusAID counterpart officials have been regularly updated of the TA status for information sharing.