Press release

19 Mar 2010

Beirut

ESCWA and the World Bank Seek to Promote Intra-Mashreq Trade

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ESCWA and the World Bank held a joint high-level workshop on Thursday 18 March, where they presented the findings and recommendations of a study entitled “Regional Cross-Border Trade Facilitation and Infrastructure for Mashreq Countries”. Opening statements were delivered by Lebanese Minister of Finance Raya Hassan, ESCWA Executive Secretary Bader AlDafa, and World Bank Director for the Middle East Department, Hedi Larbi. In her statement, Hassan said the volume of intraregional trade in the Arab Mashreq remains low. She said “adopting the automated system for customs data software (ASYCODA) in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine creates a sound platform for unifying customs procedures among Mashreq countries, which helps in cross-border trade facilitation”. “The study that ESCWA and the World Bank have produced recommends the establishment of a Corridor Management System, a project which is worthy of discussion in all its aspects. Our goal should be to turn our regional trade space into an added value on the international trade scene”. For his part, AlDafa considered trade to be “one of the fundamentals of socio-economic development, which is ESCWA’s message. Trade and transport facilitation is therefore a main focus in the Commission’s programmes and activities”. “The ESCWA region holds many prospects to strengthen regional integration,” AlDafa added. “Our joint meeting with the World Bank today is an example of the needed cooperation that we always seek to benefit from each organization’s expertise, and to mobilize resources to work for a common goal, which is sound and sustainable development”. In his address, Larbi focused on the findings of the study, saying that more effective administrative and customs procedures could lower the cost of trade exchange by at least US$600 million and raise trade levels from 16 to 22 percent. He added that according to recent studies conducted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, “trade exchange within the Arab world is very weak in comparison with other regions of the world.” I It amounts to a mere 13 percent, when it reaches almost 35 percent in Eastern Asia and 21 percent in Latin America, he noted During the workshop, senior policy makers in the region discussed the way forward to implement some of the priority recommendations to enhance cross-border trade under the regional Trade Facilitation and Infrastructure Project, which would be supported by governments and development partners.
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