The APTFF has been jointly organized by ADB and ESCAP together with a local partner in the past six years: Thailand (2009), Malaysia (2010), Republic of Korea (2011), Sri Lanka (2012), People's Republic of China (PRC) (2013), and Thailand (2014). APTFF significantly grew since its inception and it is now a week-long series of events that attract more than 200 participants. This regional small-scale capacity development technical assistance (CDTA) will provide support to the organization of the APTFF 2015, including the preparation of a background paper on trade facilitation to be used as reference for the APTFF. In 2015, APTFF is likely to be held in a city in PRC, other than Beijing.
| Project Name | ADB and UNESCAP’s Asia-Pacific Trade Facilitation Forum 2015 | ||||
| Project Number | 49231-001 | ||||
| Country | Regional |
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| Project Status | Closed | ||||
| Project Type / Modality of Assistance | Technical Assistance |
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| Source of Funding / Amount |
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| Strategic Agendas | Inclusive economic growth Regional integration |
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| Drivers of Change | Knowledge solutions Partnerships |
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| Sector / Subsector | Industry and trade / Trade and services |
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| Gender Equity and Mainstreaming | No gender elements | ||||
| Description | The APTFF has been jointly organized by ADB and ESCAP together with a local partner in the past six years: Thailand (2009), Malaysia (2010), Republic of Korea (2011), Sri Lanka (2012), People's Republic of China (PRC) (2013), and Thailand (2014). APTFF significantly grew since its inception and it is now a week-long series of events that attract more than 200 participants. This regional small-scale capacity development technical assistance (CDTA) will provide support to the organization of the APTFF 2015, including the preparation of a background paper on trade facilitation to be used as reference for the APTFF. In 2015, APTFF is likely to be held in a city in PRC, other than Beijing. | ||||
| Project Rationale and Linkage to Country/Regional Strategy | Capacity development is critically important for trade facilitation reforms to be successfully implemented. Given the nature of trade facilitation, experience sharing is one of effective ways to achieve such a goal. In fact, the APTFF highlights the following key objectives: (i) enable sharing of experiences and knowledge between and among countries in the region; (ii) foster increased understanding and exchange of views between public and private stakeholders, as well as with trade facilitation standards developers and technical assistance providers; (iii) learn about and draw from on-going implementation of national and regional trade facilitation measures; and (iv) introduce relevant international tools, instruments, and facilities aimed at increasing the efficiency of regional and global trade.
Trade Facilitation is crucial for trade and economic development. However, it has attracted a relatively weak attention from policy makers and scholars, compared against other trade policy tools such as tariff, while private sectors have been suffering from the absence of effective trade facilitation reform. The implementation of trade facilitation measures is much more complicated than other trade policies, given the number of important stakeholders involved. Economic studies on trade facilitation is far less developed than those on trade or tariff policy, which makes policy making in this field difficult. Trade facilitation officials sometimes lack support to push the reform agenda because it seldom becomes the top priority of the administration. Thus, it is important for policy makers, practitioners, private sectors and scholars to gather together one a year to extensively discuss trade facilitation issues to reaffirm the importance of trade facilitation and necessary concerted actions. The partnership between ADB and ESCAP is important, but such is not the goal of APTFF per se. As explained, the fundamental objectives of APTFF are to reaffirm the significance of trade facilitation and to enhance capacity of DMCs through experience sharing and leaning. The two institutions should serve policy makers in the region and jointly providing a single regional platform where various stakeholders can discuss trade facilitation related issues and addressing the problems raised by participants is an effective method to achieve such a goal. |
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| Impact | Improved trade facilitation policies (Pillar 2 of the ADB RCI Strategy 2006) | ||||
| Project Outcome | |
|---|---|
| Description of Outcome | Enhanced understanding on trade facilitation |
| Progress Toward Outcome | |
| Implementation Progress | |
| Description of Project Outputs | APTFF and side events |
| Status of Implementation Progress (Outputs, Activities, and Issues) | |
| Geographical Location | Regional |
| Summary of Environmental and Social Aspects | |
|---|---|
| Environmental Aspects | |
| Involuntary Resettlement | |
| Indigenous Peoples | |
| Stakeholder Communication, Participation, and Consultation | |
| During Project Design | The Project team will seek comments from RDs and coordinate with UNESCAP. |
| During Project Implementation | The Project team will consult ADB RDs and UNESCAP to ensure smooth delivery of the APTFF 2015. |
| Business Opportunities | |
|---|---|
| Consulting Services | A national consultant will be engaged for twelve person-months to support the preparation and organization of the APTFF. In addition, the S-CDTA will engage around 20 resource persons who will contribute to the discussions during the various sessions of the APTFF. The national consultant and the resource persons will be engaged using the individual consultant selection in accordance with ADB's Guidelines on the Use of Consultants by ADB and its Borrowers (2013, as amended from time to time). Disbursements under the S-CDTA will be made in accordance with ADB's Technical Assistance Disbursement Handbook (2010, as amended from time to time). The duration of the TA will be from August 2015 to July 2016. |
| Responsible ADB Officer | Khan, Fahad H. |
| Responsible ADB Department | Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department |
| Responsible ADB Division | ERCI |
| Timetable | |
|---|---|
| Concept Clearance | 26 Jun 2015 |
| Fact Finding | - |
| MRM | - |
| Approval | 11 Aug 2015 |
| Last Review Mission | - |
| Last PDS Update | 18 Aug 2015 |
TA 8943-REG
| Milestones | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approval | Signing Date | Effectivity Date | Closing | ||
| Original | Revised | Actual | |||
| 11 Aug 2015 | - | 11 Aug 2015 | 31 Jul 2016 | - | - |
| Financing Plan/TA Utilization | Cumulative Disbursements | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADB | Cofinancing | Counterpart | Total | Date | Amount | |||
| Gov | Beneficiaries | Project Sponsor | Others | |||||
| 210,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 210,000.00 | 11 Aug 2015 | 106,898.57 |
Project Data Sheets (PDS) contain summary information on the project or program. Because the PDS is a work in progress, some information may not be included in its initial version but will be added as it becomes available. Information about proposed projects is tentative and indicative.
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| Title | Document Type | Document Date |
|---|---|---|
| ADB and UNESCAP's Asia-Pacific Trade Facilitation Forum 2015: Technical Assistance Completion Report | TA Completion Reports | Jun 2017 |
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