Involving regions to facilitate trade

The Asia Pacific Trade Facilitation Forum (APTFF) will be held in Colombo on 30 and 31 October 2012. During the APTFF, countries exchange information, experiences and practices for trade facilitation in the Asia Pacific region, identify priority areas for regional co-operation and integration and learn about new tools and services which can increase the efficiency of cross border transactions that will ultimately improve the competitiveness of firms in the region.

As a further step towards collaborating with Government and to understand how other countries in Asia and the Pacific have successfully implemented trade facilitation measures for SMEs, 25 selected officials from the chambers of commerce, industry and agriculture in Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Kandy, Hambantota, Matale, Badulla, Jaffna, Vavuniya, Galle, Mannar and Matara will be given the opportunity to participate at the Asia Pacific Trade Facilitation Forum, which will be co-hosted by The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.  The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce is facilitating their participation at the forum through assistance provided by the Asia Foundation under its LEG Project. The forum will provide an ideal opportunity for regional chambers to improve their understanding of trade facilitation and benefit from the experiences of other countries.  The sessions feature several international experts on the subject from different parts of the world, who will be participating at the forum courtesy of UNESCAP and the ADB. They have also provided an opportunity during the forum, for local SMEs to have a special session on the benefits of trade facilitation for SMEs during which the speakers will share success stories of SMEs from the other Asia Pacific countries and discuss how and what Sri Lanka can learn from their experiences.

The special session for SMEs is titled ‘E-Trade for SME Integration in Regional/Global Value Chains.’ This session have three presentations – ‘Enhancing Paperless Trade for SME Exports’ by Somnuk Keretho, from the Kasetstart University of Thailand, ‘E-trade and Its Impact on SMEs: Case of China and Lessons for Asia Pacific Region’ by Wang Jian, expert of the APEC E-Commerce Business Alliance, China International Electronic Commerce Centre and ‘E-choupal: ICT for Integrating Farmers into Value Chains in India’ by V. V. Rajasekhar from the International Trade Centre, Geneva.  For regional chambers to be effective in being involved in facilitating trade, it is important that their awareness on trade procedures and trade facilitation is enhanced. Acquiring such specialised knowledge can benefit regional SMEs who are members of regional chambers, which will in turn facilitate their access to international markets.  Understanding trade procedures and trade facilitation will enable regional SMEs to contribute effectively during stakeholder consultations with the Government by addressing the concerns and issues of SMEs in the regions, which will in turn ensure that they are taken into account when Government introduces trade regulations and adopts trade facilitation measures.

With this objective in mind, and with the intention of improving the knowledge of regional SMEs and regional chambers, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the Asia Foundation, through its Local Economic Governance Project (LEG Project), which is funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), conducted a series of workshops on import/export procedures and trade facilitation in Galle, Kandy, Badulla, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Ampara and Jaffna recently.  The objectives of the workshops were to create awareness among regional SMEs on how to engage in international trade and the importance of simplifying, streamlining and automating trade procedures.  For more information on APTFF please contact Subhashini on [email protected] or 115588883.