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Evaluation of the ESCAP Subprogramme 2: Trade, Investment and Innovation
Get PDFCommissioned by Trade, Investment and Innovation Department, ESCAPESCAP Subprogramme 2 (SP2) “Trade and investment” is vested within the Trade, Investment and Innovation Division (TIID), with support from the Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology and the Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization. TIID is organized in three sections: (1) Trade Policy and Facilitation, (2) Investment and Enterprise Development, and (3) Technology and Innovation. The overall impact objective sought by the subprogramme is “inclusive and sustainable trade, investment and innovation in Asia and the Pacific,” which is expected to help member States in the region achieve relevant SDGs. The purpose of this evaluation was to provide ESCAP, including its Trade, Investment and Innovation Division, “actionable information to enhance the impact of the subprogramme and value of the work carried out by TIID”. The evaluation is formative in nature and intends to support organizational learning and decision-making towards informing formulation of future programme of work and delivery modalities. The evaluation followed a mixedmethods, inclusive and participatory approach with adequate triangulation and counterfactuals to arrive at credible, reliable, and unbiased findings.</p
Innovation, transfer and diffusion of fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies to catalyze sustainable development in Asia-Pacific
Get PDFCountries in the Asia-Pacific region are fast embracing the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies and the coronavirus pandemic has fast-tracked the adoption of such technologies. At the same time, the pandemic has adversely impacted the advancements towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While many developed and some developing countries are harnessing the benefits of 4IR technologies to achieve their SDGs, there is a risk that many developing and least developed countries (LDCs) could be left behind.
Given this situation, this paper presents an overview of the status, opportunities and challenges related to 4IR technologies for sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific and draws some lessons for regional cooperation. It presents a comparison of the countries with respect to adaptation of 4IR, their strengths and the opportunities that they bring to the countries in the region. It presents cross-country examples of enabling policy mechanisms to promote 4IR technology, innovation and its applications for sustainable development; both at the national level and at the regional level. It outlines select initiatives related to facilitating innovation; 4IRbased partnerships/collaborations and transfer of technology. The paper then presents the key challenges related to innovation, development and transfer of 4IR technologies. These include low research and development spending, digital infrastructure and access gap, regulation and policy gaps, and skill and education gaps. These gaps are more prominent for the developing countries and the LDCs and are accentuated by the barriers related to cross-border technology transfer, investment and trade. To overcome these challenges, the paper makes recommendations on (a) how countries in the region can jointly harness the benefits of 4IR (b) work together to address their common concerns (c) learn from each other’s best practices (d) work together to reduce the digital divide and achieve SDGs and (e) how the Asia-Pacific region can utilize the platforms of South-South cooperation and Triangular cooperation for accelerating the adoption of 4IR technologies. The paper presents a ‘regional roadmap’ to accelerate innovation and transfer of 4IR technologies in Asia-Pacific to achieve SDGs by 2030. </p
Bangladesh startup ecosystem assessment report : white paper
No full textBangladesh has made clear its intent to expand its startup sector to create an engine of growth for the country, and to become a key provider of advanced digital services. With its highly technologically-capable, young population it is in a good position to build on the existing growth in the sector and launch more globally exposed startups in the near future. Building on the previous detailed work of the Bangladesh Startup Ecosystem Assessment Report, this White Paper presents the key findings and recommendations of the report in a condensed form, while further promoting the ideas of Gender Lens Investment, inclusive policies and business practices.</p
Trade, investment and cooperation in health product and services in the Asia-Pacific Region
Get PDFIn Asia-Pacific, over the last few decades, countries have focussed on improving their healthcare sector and have been trying to achieve the targets set by SDG 3 – Ensure Healthy Lives and Promote Wellbeing for All at All Ages, and SDG 17 – Partnership for the Goals. Yet there are still considerable gaps across the countries, in terms of access to healthcare services and per capita healthcare expenditure. The different levels of development among countries and across sub-regions have resulted in a fragmented marketplace, infrastructure gaps in developing and least developed countries (LDCs), limited government funding, multiple regulatory regimes and standards, limited public-private partnerships and shortages of key healthcare products and personnel - some of these issues can be addressed through trade, cross-border investment and collaborations.
In this context, the paper analyses the coverage and commitments in the health sector in existing regional and bilateral trade agreements, frameworks, forums and other arrangements in the Asia-Pacific region. It also aims to understand the current status of regional and bilateral cooperation in the health sector in the region.
The paper found that the coverage of the health sector, both products and services, in the existing regional and bilateral trade agreements, and other arrangements across Asia-Pacific countries, is limited. Developing countries and LDCs, especially, have high tariffs while developed countries have rigid standards and requirements, which restrict trade flow. There are limited commitments in healthcare in the trade agreements and limited private sector engagements. Certain facilitating measures like regulatory cooperation and mutual recognition agreements are few and even if they are signed, these are not implemented in a time-bound manner. The COVID-19 pandemic brought forth various new challenges, like sporadic bans, export restrictions of critical COVID-19 equipment, supply chain disruption and data sharing related regulatory issues.
Government-to-government sharing of information, best practices and regulatory cooperation and multi-stakeholder engagements and collaborations across multiple platforms, can enhance trade, investment and cooperation in this sector, and support the developing countries and LDCs in meeting their SDG goals. The paper presents policy recommendations for Asia-Pacific member countries to leverage existing trade and other arrangements to facilitate trade and investment flows and have mutually beneficial collaborations.</p
Sustainability assessment of urban transport system in Greater Jakarta
Get PDFUNESCAP has developed The Sustainable Urban Transport Index (SUTI) to help summarize, track
and compare the performance of Asian cities in regards to sustainable urban transport and the
related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), more specifically target 11.2. The objective of
SUTI is to evaluate the status of the urban transportation system in cities. SUTI is a quantitative
tool for member states and cities to compare their performance on sustainable urban transport
systems and policies with peers. It can help to identify additional policies and strategies required
to improve the urban transportation systems and services. It includes ten indicators for the
System, Economic, Environmental, and Social domains. SUTI also assesses the progress of
transport contribution towards the achievement of SDGs. Jakarta, especially Jabodetabek
(Greater Jakarta), is an urban agglomeration area in Indonesia which is growing rapidly and has
many problems in the transportation sector. Sustainable transportation is part of the
government's program to ensure the smooth running of urban transportation. For this reason, it
is necessary to measure the sustainability of transportation in Greater Jakarta through SUTI. Data
collection to develop SUTI in Greater Jakarta includes field data collection, data collection from
the appropriate authority, and reviewing various relevant sources. Due to the Covid-19 situation,
all data collection was from secondary data based on relevant parties in Indonesia.
On the other hand, consultation meetings (online) with GJTA, Ministry of Transportation
Indonesia, Directorate of Land Transportation, Directorate of Traffic, Ministry of Work, Toll Road
Authority, Police Traffic Department, Environmental Division, and relevant stakeholders
organized during data collection and analysis. Implemented in Jakarta in 2017, and upon learning
the successful prospect of the project, the SUTI project is to continue in 2021 to see its
improvement and development in sustainable transportation. The ten indicators and
methodology to model the SUTI for cities in Indonesia are very useful for the city policymakers in
improving their urban transport system. This index can be used by Greater Jakarta Transport
Authority to rate their city performance annually. Besides, collecting the data itself in a pandemic
situation is a major problem. Therefore, a system to update the database annually is needed and
make it available online and updated from time to time. SUTI for Greater Jakarta verifies what
has been identified in the GJTA master plans. SUTI results show that the geometric mean index
for Greater Jakarta is 56.16 where each indicator shows results as shown in the following table.</p