The Asia-Pacific countries should reduce non-tariff trade barriers and emphasise strengthening regional connectivity for trade facilitation within the region, discussants said at an international conference.

The conference — Asia Pacific Trade Facilitation Forum 2012 — was co-organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and Asian Development Bank in Colombo on October 30-31, according to a statement.

Sarath Amunugama, senior minister, International Monetary Cooperation of Sri Lanka, in his inaugural address suggested developing and expanding regional connectivity for increased trade within the Asia Pacific region in view of the continuous economic slowdown in Europe and the USA.

Mahbubur Rahman, president of the International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh (ICCB), chaired a session on e-trade for SME integration in regional or global value chains.

Rahman appreciated the efforts of the UNESCAP and the ADB for promotion of paperless trade for the potential SMEs using IT and other electronic devices.

He said many of these initiatives, however, transact business informally, seldom keeping records, and are not mainstream users of IT.
To promote paperless trade for these micro enterprises would not be easy or even sensible — what may be done is probably to improve their environments so they can graduate to being SMEs with formal records, systems and IT facilities.

Rahman, however, said one has to be extra cautious and ensure security in paperless trading as it involved trillions of dollars of business transactions.

As a panel speaker on “enhancing public-private collaboration for trade facilitation and paperless trade”, the ICCB president mentioned the various steps taken by the Bangladesh government for simplifying trade as well as reducing the time required for export and import clearance.

He said Bangladesh is also considering the ways and means for reducing various trade barriers to improve its present ranking of 122nd out of 183 economies in the World Bank indicators on “Doing Business”.

The forum was attended by more than 200 government officials, traders, public and private service providers, chamber leaders from central Asia, South and Southeast and East Asia as well as the South Pacific.