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Ministerial Declaration and Regional Action Programme for Sustainable Transport Development in Asia and the Pacific (2022–2026)
No full textThe fourth session of the Ministerial Conference on Transport held in Bangkok and online from 14 to 17 December 2021 adopted the Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Transport Development in Asia and the Pacific and a new Regional Action Programme for Sustainable Transport Development in Asia and the Pacific (2022–2026). At its seventy-eighth session held from 23 to 27 May 2022, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) adopted the Resolution 78/3 on Implementation of the Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Transport Development in Asia and the Pacific.
This booklet contains the Ministerial Declaration and the Regional Action Programme for Sustainable Transport Development in Asia and the Pacific (2022–2026).</p
The value of engagement and participation for advancing the 2030 agenda for sustainable development
Get PDFThis report provides an in-depth analysis of eight case studies, collected by ESCAP from selected partners, to identify strategies and engagement designs that can overcome cultural, socio-economic and institutional barriers associated with participation and engagement of marginalized and vulnerable groups in decision making processes linked to the environment and natural resources.
The case studies selected for this report present a spread of strategies and activities that have contributed to inclusive engagement of vulnerable groups involved in the protection of the environment. Case studies are a review based on a framework building on concepts found in the literature and structured into four areas: (i) stakeholder, context and history identification, (ii) intersectoral interventions (iii) meaningful engagement, and (iv) institutionalization. The case studies analyzed for this study underline that the assessment of context, collective engagement and coordination, cross-sharing of technical and local knowledge, as well as capacity building efforts targeting women all contribute to improving project outcomes, including gender power balances, cooperation between governments and communities, and enhanced knowledge-sharing, ultimately leading to increased environmental protection and restoration.</p
2022 : Leaving no one behind : Samoa country brief
No full textLeaving No One Behind (LNOB) tool helps discover how different circumstances interact to create unequal access to basic opportunities in Asia and the Pacific. The LNOB country brief for Samoa provides insights into which groups are further ahead and further behind in various SDG indicators and where the biggest gaps are found in terms of access to opportunities or prevalence of barriers between the furthest behind and the furthest ahead groups in Samoa. </p
SDG 14 : Life below water : conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development
No full textEncompassing large and diverse territories with different ocean basins, the Asia-Pacific region is currently not on track to reach key targets, including those related to marine pollution, the conservation of coastal areas, and marine resources for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs). Regional and transboundary cooperation efforts and mechanisms are necessary for the delivery of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 and are of relevance in the socioeconomic response to COVID-19.
Ocean ecosystems are in a constant struggle to moderate the impacts of land-based lifestyles, such as the consequences of climate change for marine habitats in the form of coral bleaching, acidification, eutrophication, ocean warming, rising sea levels, harmful algal blooms, and a long list of pressures. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing challenges, including environmental issues facing marine ecosystems.
Although fisheries support the livelihoods of millions of people in Asia and the Pacific and provide a major component of the diets of communities across the region, fish stocks continue to decline, and consumption patterns are unsustainable. This situation is accompanied by additional stressors, such as climate change-induced migrations of species and harmful practices such as persistent illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.</p
Promotion of public transport electrification in Lao People’s Democratic Republic
No full textThe Government electric vehicle (EV) target is to have at least 1% of total vehicle fleet electric by 2025 and 30% electric by 2030 to reduce oil imports, foreign currency expenditures, and negative environmental impacts.
More than 95 per cent of electricity is generated by hydropower stations in Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Further, it plana to increase hydropower generation capacity to 13 GW by 2030. The high share of renewable electricity makes Lao People’s Democratic Republic having high potential to deploy electric mobility and support decarbonization of the transport sector. A Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system is being developed in Vientiane with battery-operated electric buses that is planned to be operational by December 2024. In addition, various types of electric mobility programme are ongoing in cities such as Vientiane, Luang Prabang, and Savannakhet. A comprehensive integrated strategy, policy and roadmap on transitioning to electric mobility would be useful for further promotion of electric vehicles in Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
The background working paper on Promotion of Public Transport Electrification in Lao People’s Democratic Republic was prepared for discussion at the EV Forum: National Workshop on Transitioning to Electric Mobility in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, held in Vientiane on 3 June 2022. The national workshop brought together relevant transport, urban and energy stakeholders from Governmental entities, public and private sector, and national and international experts to share experiences and discuss various issues, challenges as well as strategy and roadmap for transitioning to electric mobility in public transport in Lao People’s Democratic Republic. </P
Information security and privacy
Get PDFThe module provides an overview of concepts and standards of Information Security and Privacy Protection and discusses the requirements for the establishment and implementation of policies on information security, as well as the life cycle of information security policy. It aims to equip Government officials and civil servants with the knowledge and tools to assess existing information security policies in terms of international standards of privacy protection in order to formulate and implement information security policies, plans and programmes which fit their national contexts.4th ed
A climate resilient transport sector in the Kazakhstan : action plan and policy recommendations framework
Get PDFKazakhstan is strategically located at the intersection between Europe and Asia. The transport sector plays a key role in the country’s economy and contributes to over 9% of its GDP. The sector includes roads, railways, inland waterways and aviation. However, roads and railways are predominant. The country currently has a 138,700 km total length of hard surface roads and a 16,000 km total length of railways (Third Biennial Report, 2017). Inland water transport takes a small share of transport services in Kazakhstan. The country has over 4,000 km of inland waterways and access to the Caspian Sea. Cargo transportation uses inland water transport in several parts of the country.
Between 2013 and 2016, freight and passenger transportation increased by 4.5% and 11.6 % respectively. The share of railway transportation decreased by 2%. The passenger turnover in motor vehicles increased by 1.9%. Air freight transport decreased by 32 %. Road freight transport increased by 12%. Railways provide over 70% of the cargo turnover. Growing dependencies of both freight and passenger transportation on the road network highlight the importance of the road transportation segment. The transport infrastructure in many rural areas and territories with low population density, such as the Western and Central regions of the country, is still underdeveloped. The railway infrastructure also requires repairs and upgrades.</p
Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement : an evolving preferential regional trade agreement
No full textThis is an updated version of APTA 2016 book titled ‘The Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement: Promoting South-South Regional Integration and Sustainable DevelopmentAsia-Pacific region has become the centre of economic growth of the world for the last couple of decades and international trade and investment have played a key role for many countries in this region in achieving this impressive growth performance. As the Asia-Pacific region continues to thrive economically, they are being increasingly integrated into the global trade and economic system. Following this progressive globalisation of the Asia- Pacific countries, trade policy became one of the major tools to achieve inclusive and sustainable development. Trade and investment are linked to many cross-cutting issues and it has now been recognised more than ever that sustainable and resilient production and supply networks are essential for sustainable economic growth and development. Countries realise that they need mutual cooperation to approach global and regional problems effectively, both at the level of government and business. Accordingly, the countries in the Asia-Pacific region have been engaged in advancing regional cooperation frameworks which are typically centred around trade and investment liberalisation initiatives. The business has continuously flourished regional integration through the formation of regional value chains and production networks. While the governments also attempt to pave the way for the expansion of such production and supply networks by creating enabling investment and trade regime through the formation of regional trade agreements and economic partnerships, there is still substantial potential remains unexplored. The Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), the oldest preferential trade agreement in the region with a large consumer base, can play an important role in filling this gap and advancing effective economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region.
This book provides an overview of the APTA, analyses the economic and trade performance of the APTA Participating States within and outside the regional block, and also explores the potential of joining new members from the neighbouring regions. Chapter 1 of this book gives an overview of the APTA. With this objective, this chapter provides an update on the evolution of the APTA, describes the development of preferential tariffs and rules of origin regimes under APTA through its four rounds of successfully concluded negations, and discusses different framework agreements under APTA. It also gives a synopsis of its institutional arrangement and accession procedure and summarises the stylised facts about APTA.
Chapter 2 portrays the relative importance of APTA as a group compared to other regional blocks as well as world’s top economies. It also evaluates international linkages and economic globalisation of APTA members. Chapter 3 examines how the APTA Participating States can promote trade and investment linkages among themselves. It provides an evaluation of the potential for further cooperation in goods trade, trade facilitation and services trade among the APTA participating states. Chapter 4 examines the benefits of joining APTA for potential new members to realise the true potential of being a Pan-Asia-Pacific agreement by expanding the membership of APTA as mandated by the Second APTA Ministerial Council Declaration in 2007 and reaffirmed by its subsequent Ministerial Council Declarations. It includes sections for Central Asian Republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), Pacific Islands Countries (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Vanuatu), South Asia (Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan) and Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam). Each section provides: i) an overview of the potential new members’ economic and trade features, including their trade policy and trade agreements; ii) an overview of trade between APTA PSs and the country group or countries of interest; and iii) an illustration of potential benefits for the prospective new members as well as for the APTA Participating States following the accession of new members into the APTA. The overall objective of this exercise is to explore the potential of whether APTA can eventually evolve into a Pan-Asian economic grouping by expanding the membership of APTA to cover other regions of Asia to make the group the most representative of the Asia-Pacific region.</p
Policy guidelines on increasing business registration and access to One-Roof-Service for women-led MSMEs : supporting women-owned and managed micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Cambodia
No full textWomen-owned and managed enterprises in Cambodia have a significant presence. A large majority of these entrepreneurs remain informal due to sociocultural challenges and those related to lack of access to human capital, markets, finance, and other policy dimensions.To help develop women's entrepreneurship and increase business registration, Cambodia has introduced a digital registration process that aims to save costs and time. The digitization of business registration is the first stage in the development of Cambodia's One-Roof-Service (ORS) digital platform. While these initiatives are essential for catalysing women's entrepreneurship, concrete and deliberate steps are needed to ensure that women can access the ORS, and have the willingness and ability to formalize their business. Drawing on the challenges mentioned above and via stakeholder consultations, this policy report provides guidelines for mitigating the challenges related to increasing business registrations and access to the ORS for women entrepreneurs. The report proposes the following three sets of guidelines: 1. The first set of guidelines reviews the overall development of the ORS. This includes establishing a dedicated working group on women entrepreneurs and the ORS, setting targets and a reporting framework, and building a gender-responsive policy environment. 2. The second set of guidelines discusses increasing the access of women entrepreneurs to the ORS. Since access is closely linked to the types of services and knowledge an ORS can offer entrepreneurs, therefore, these guidelines focus on the kind of Women-owned and managed enterprises in Cambodia have a significant presence. A large majority of these entrepreneurs remain informal due to sociocultural challenges and those related to lack of access to human capital, markets, finance, and other policy dimensions. 12 Supporting Women-Owned and Managed Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) In Cambodia services that may be of use to women entrepreneurs. These are related to developing success stories, toolkits, market access information, compliance guides, enabling access to finance and knowledge of finance, training/skill up-gradation programs, and building an online support network. 3. The final set of guidelines relate to increasing business registration by women entrepreneurs. Here, the guidelines cover both the online and offline options related to business registrations. The willingness to register is a function of the benefits that women see in business formalization. Thus, the guidelines suggest using direct and indirect approaches to mitigate challenges across the domains mentioned above, working through existing networks, and collaborating with the Ministry of Women's Affairs initiatives for developing women's entrepreneurship in Cambodia