establishing a sustainable national level trade and transport facilitation monitoring mechanism...
TRANSCRIPT
Conférence Internationale sur les Guichets Uniques: « Guichet unique virtuel du commerce extérieur : L'exigence d'une collaboration inclusive »
SWC2016
Establishing a sustainable national-level Trade and Transport Facilitation
Monitoring Mechanism (TTFMM)
Somnuk Keretho Project Leader, UN/CEFACT TTFMM Project
The objective of this presentation
To recommend the government to establish a sustainable trade and transport facilitation monitoring mechanism (TTFMM) at the national level
To introduce and call for your participation in the UN/CEFACT project to develop recommendations for trade and transport facilitation monitoring mechanism
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For the decade ahead - Continuous Improvement Mechanism for TF and SW Development
needs to be institutionalized -
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1. Monitor the As-Is
2. Develop the To-Be & Improvement Plan
3. Implement the plan
4. Adopt the new environment
Why is the sustainable national trade and transport facilitation monitoring mechanism important and essential?
Available international cross-country trade and transport indicators* are useful but not sufficiently detailed (on why & what should be improved) or not really reflecting the specific implementation impact of the country of that year.
Many trade facilitation monitoring exercises have been carried out in developing countries, but mostly
One-off/Ad-hoc assessment studies; overlapping and not coordinated; no uniform method & approach; no follow up
Lack of ownership of results, no connection to right policy makers
4 * e.g. Logistics Performance Index & World Bank’s Trade Across Border Report
The integrated and sustainable monitoring mechanism is needed.
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The objective of TTFMM
1) To measure and assess progress and impacts of the country’s trade and transport facilitation by providing adequate data & rational (why & what are the bottlenecks and improvement opportunities should be)
2) To assist policy makers in formulating, updating and prioritizing recommendations for trade and transport facilitation
Key characteristics
The monitoring and analysis result including the recommendations must be escalated to and mandated by the highest-level authority, such that the approved recommendations get implemented
The monitoring mechanism must be institutionalized and sustainably carried out on a regular basis (e.g. monthly, quarterly, yearly)
TTF and SW Assessment Study and Analysis
During the past ten years, several trade and transport facilitation monitoring study and analysis have been conducted for Thailand but mainly by academia and consultants, e.g. Business Process Analysis* of the international trade for
some specific import/export products, and specific modes of transportation.
Time-Cost Distance* (to assess the time and cost needed for the general cargo to go though specific transport corridors)
Time-Release Study* at the particular sea port.
However, most of these studies have their limitations, e.g. One time activity with little ownership from the key agencies
which should be mandated to implement the improvement measures
The impacts of several TF implementation projects have not been assessed.
No agency has been designated to conduct the monitoring/assessment of TF progress at the regular basis.
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Thailand Case
* Business Process Analysis Guide to Simplify Trade Procedures, UNESCAP/UNECE, 2012 * Time-Cost Distance Method, UN/ESCAP * WCO Time-Release Study
National Logistics Committee and monitoring mechanism
National TF Body (NTFB) in Thailand has been established yet, but “National Logistics Committee” (NLC) chaired by Prime Minister (enacted by Law) is the high-level steering committee for integrating the national logistics strategy and approving the implementation plans of the country.
Trade Facilitation Enhancement and National Single Window is one of the strategic agenda and the flagship initiative oversaw by this NLC.
Under NLC, a subcommittee on monitoring and assessment of the trade facilitation environment has been formed in 2015. Five working groups have been tasked to conduct “as-is” business process analysis, identify
bottlenecks, and propose the better “to-be” business processes for inter-agency regulatory procedures and document requirements for 5 strategic export products.
Each working group comprise of process owners of all relevant government agencies, and trade associations of those specific products.
The analysis reports including specific improvement measures have been reported back to the NLC (and the Cabinet) and the mandates have been enforced to all relevant agencies to implement all those specific measures.
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Thailand Case
Example: BPA of some strategic export products and also specific improvement measures for each government agency
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Sugar
(expo
rt)
# Steps reduct
ion
37%
# Docs reduct
ion
100%
Time Reducti
on
55%
Cost Reducti
on
96%
As-Is To-Be #
Processes
17 17
# Steps 154-156
92
As-Is To-Be # Forms 21 0
# attached docs
52 0 As-Is To-Be
days 67 30
As-Is To-Be Travelling
cost 5,260 200
Paper cost
58 0
(baht/transaction)
For the process improvement of these 5 strategic products
– the direct cost reduction of about 500 million baht per year will be achieved.
Time-Release Study has been conducted regularly for continuous improvement in Japan
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TTFMM could complement other UN/CEFACT Recommendations
Recommendation N°. 4 - National Trade Facilitation Bodies (NTFB) NTFB is recommended to be the executive body of TTFMM TTFMM monitoring and analysis reports including recommendations should be
reported back to NTFB for decision making and implementation mandate
Recommendation N°. 18 - Facilitation Measures Related to International Trade Procedures: TTFMM would effectively identify the appropriate and relevant measures within
the Recommendation N°. 18 based on the current context of the country.
Recommendation N°. 33 - Single Window Recommendation TTFMM would assist in identifying concrete Single Window components to be
implemented (e.g. by providing “as-is” and “to-be” analysis) and monitoring the effectiveness of SW for trade facilitation.
Recommendation N°. 34 - Data Simplification and Standardization for International Trade TTFMM would monitor the effectiveness of the current data simplification, and
provide analysis of “as-is” and “to-be” data architecture
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Conclusion
Please support and participate in this UN/CEFACT TTFMM project in developing recommendations and guidelines and/or sharing lessons learned about trade and transport monitoring mechanism The project is now in a drafting stage. If you want to participate, please check out
the Collaborative UN/CEFACT Environment (CUE) https://www2.unece.org/cefact/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=7733460
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