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Readiness assessment for cross-border paperless trade : Kazakhstan
Get PDFThis report provides an assessment of Kazakhstan’s readiness for cross-border paperless trade, i.e., the conduct of international trade based on electronic data and documents.
A team of experts conducted this assessment following readiness checklists developed by the ESCAP Interim Intergovernmental Steering Group on Cross-Border Paperless Trade Facilitation, of which Kazakhstan is a member. National consultation on facilitating cross-border paperless trade was co-organized by the QazTrade Center for Trade Policy Development, the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the United Nations ESCAP on 9 December 2021 to review findings from the study conducted on Kazakhstan’s readiness assessment on cross-border paperless trade and discuss a proposed action plan.
Following a brief overview of trade facilitation implementation in Kazakhstan, findings from the technical and legal readiness assessments for cross-border paperless trade are presented. Recommendations on the technical and the legal aspects of cross-border paperless trade are then provided, followed by an initial action plan for Kazakhstan to move forwar/p>
The report is co-published by ESCAP and QazTrade Center for Trade Policy Development.
The complete set of Cross-Border Paperless Trade Readiness Assessment reports can be accessed : Readiness Assessments for Cross-Border Paperless Trade.</p
Terminal Evaluation of Project 2023AA “Building urban economic resilience during and after COVID-19”
Get PDFThe Implementing Entities (IEs) of the project were the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA).The project “Building urban economic resilience during and after COVID-19” sought to strengthen the capacities of local governments in 16 cities globally to design, implement, and monitor sustainable, resilient, and inclusive COVID-19 economic and financial responses, as well as recovery and rebuilding plans. The intended impact of the project was for local governments to be better able to withstand shocks and crises with financial implications, such as COVID-19 and other stresses to urban systems that are likely to reoccur in a predominantly urban world. The project was organized into five workstreams: assessment and capacity building, stakeholder engagement, economic resilience planning, knowledge sharing, and process monitoring and evaluation. The project was implemented in 16 pilot cities between May 2020 and April 2022.United Nations Development Account (UNDA)List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ........................................................................................................5
Executive summary.......................................................................................................................................6
Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................11
Description of the Project.......................................................................................................................11
2.1 Background .......................................................................................................................................11
2.2 Project objectives and expected accomplishments/results.............................................................12
2.3 Project strategies and key activities .................................................................................................12
2.4 Beneficiaries and target countries....................................................................................................13
2.5 Key partners and other key stakeholders.........................................................................................13
2.6 Resources..........................................................................................................................................14
2.7 Link to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) .........................................................................14
2.8 Innovative elements..........................................................................................................................14
Evaluation objectives, scope and questions...........................................................................................15
3.1 Purpose and objectives.....................................................................................................................15
3.2 Evaluation scope, criteria and questions..........................................................................................15
Methodology.........................................................................................................................................16
4.1 Inception phase.................................................................................................................................16
4.2 Data gathering phase........................................................................................................................17
4.3 Analysis and reporting phase............................................................................................................19
4.4 Limitations.........................................................................................................................................19
Findings...................................................................................................................................................20
5.1 Relevance..........................................................................................................................................20
5.2 Coherence.........................................................................................................................................28
5.3 Effectiveness.....................................................................................................................................30
5.4 Efficiency ...........................................................................................................................................39
5.5 Sustainability.....................................................................................................................................42
Conclusions.............................................................................................................................................44
Lessons learned / good practices............................................................................................................47
Recommendations..................................................................................................................................48
Annexes......................................................................................................................................................50
Project’s Theory of change ..................................................................................................................50
Evaluation ToR ....................................................................................................................................51
Evaluation matrix ...............................................................................................................................58
List of documents reviewed...............................................................................................................62
List of individuals interviewed ............................................................................................................64
Data collection instruments...............................................................................................................65
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Presentation. Creating the enabling framework for the clean energy transition in Central Asia. 2022 SPECA Economic Forum
No full textTheme: Greener and Safer FutureSession 4: Sustainable Energy Transitio
Presentation. Urban Economic Resilience in Crises: Challenges and Solutions. 2022 SPECA Economic Forum
No full textTheme: Greener and Safer Futur
Estimating the effect of trade facilitation implementation on trade misinvoicing-based illicit financial flows and tax revenue in Asia and the Pacific
Get PDFTrade misinvoicing occurs when price, quantity or description of internationally traded goods is purposefully misrepresented for pecuniary gain. It is one type of illicit financial flows (IFFs), and combating IFFs has been explicitly included in the Sustainable Development Goals. Most literature on the topic so far focused on understanding and estimating misinvoicing. This study examines whether, as previously hypothesised, digital trade facilitation, in particular cross-border trade data exchange, can help in addressing misinvoicing. The study builds a simple index of misinvoicing at harmonized system (HS) four-digit level using UN Comtrade data for 2015, 2017 and 2019 to match the UN Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation data, together with a number of standard control variables commonly included in trade-related regression analyses. The results suggest that there is indeed a statistically significant association between misinvoicing as measured by the index and rates of implementation of various trade facilitation measures. The study proceeds to estimate a range of the impact of full implementation of trade facilitation measures (own and trade partners’) on tax revenue, estimated to be at least 183 billion for countries in the Asia-Pacific region, per year. Notably, this is likely to be an underestimate because of the aggregation bias of analysis conducted at HS four-digit level. Nevertheless, these numbers provide a defendable, theoretically and logically consistent estimates supporting the argument that economies stand to gain significantly from exchanging trade data across borders to stem trade misinvoicing. Implementation of cross-border paperless trade measures promise to offer the most impact on tax revenues
Ensuring public debt sustainability in the Pacific small island developing States
Get PDF- The risk of public debt distress in the Pacific small island developing States (PSIDS) had been high even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has further pushed up public debt levels and the trend is likely to continue in the coming years, thus putting debt sustainability at a greater risk.
- To ensure public debt sustainability, PSIDS can consider various policy options. Improving tax administration, introducing social/green taxes, and enhancing public spending efficiency will help address fiscal deficit, and thus debt, concerns. Development of domestic capital markets can also be explored, at least in larger economies such as Fiji and Papua New Guinea, to take advantage of innovative financing instruments and modalities for deficit financing over the long term. Prudent and effective public debt management would promote policy credibility and reduce financing costs. Finally, greater use of risk-sharing disaster financing mechanisms would help PSIDS avoid fiscal shocks and a sudden rise in debt sustainability risks
- Major creditor countries and multilateral development partners can do more to support debt sustainability in PSIDS. Among others, they can (a) offer generous debt relief; (b) make the global debt resolution architecture work better and simpler for debtors; (c) fulfil their commitments on development assistance; (d) consider and support debt for climate swaps; and (d) integrate debtor countries’ vulnerability to shocks into concessional loan decisions and debt risk assessments.
- While this policy brief highlights various good practices on fiscal and debt policies adopted by PSIDS, more support on strengthening technical capacity and institutional quality is needed
Operationalizing the environment-health nexus in Asia and the Pacific : a policy guide on opportunities for enhancing health, biodiversity, food system and climate action
Get PDFClimate change and ecosystem degradation are amongst the biggest health threats facing Asia and the Pacific. Human health is threatened by increasing risks of extreme weather events, poor air quality, unsafe and insecure food and water as well as various diseases linked to environmental change. It is estimated that almost one quarter of the global environmental burden of disease arises from 14 South-East and East Asian countries alone. There is an urgent need for actors from the environment and health sectors to develop joint agendas and mobilize a whole-of-society approach to address the interconnected environment-health risks to increase resilience, save lives, and reduce costs.
Operationalizing the Environment Health Nexus in Asia and the Pacific: A Policy Guide on Opportunities for Enhancing Health, Biodiversity, Food System and Climate Action aims to support policymakers and stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific region to address environment-health risks and safeguard human health and well-being while protecting ecosystems. Specifically, it provides an overview of concrete opportunities to mainstream the environment-health nexus in public policies in Asia and the Pacific, including those pertinent to health, biodiversity loss, food systems, and climate change. It also lays out pathways to strengthen the enabling factors for operationalizing an environmentally comprehensive One Health approach. These enabling factors include multisectoral governance; integrated environment and health data and assessment; nature-based solutions; human rights-based approaches; stakeholder engagement and capacity-building; integrated environment-health funding streams; and regional cooperation.Wellcome Trust under grant agreement 226152/Z/22/
Strengthening health systems to address inequities in COVID-19 vaccine access in the Asia-Pacific region : special series on trade and health
No full textThe economic and health recovery of countries in the Asia-Pacific region from the pandemic is hinged on the rapid and equitable deployment of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. However, in the initial years of the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, highly unequal distribution of vaccines occurred across and within countries. Even though the tight global supply was indeed an issue, health system challenges, particularly in terms of financing, service delivery, human resources, regulatory capacity and governance, played an important role in the inequitable deployment of vaccines. Recommendations given in this paper revolve around the importance of strengthening the health system to enable the equitable allocation and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.</p
Economic and social survey of Asia and the Pacific 2022 : building forward fairer : economic policies for an inclusive recovery and development
Get PDFThis 75th-anniversary issue of the Survey argues that Asia-Pacific economies must prioritize inclusive growth – whereby citizens of all socio-economic groups are able to improve their livelihoods, incomes, health, and education levels. Given the constrained fiscal space and other challenges posed by the pandemic, it is difficult but very much possible.
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