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Satellite monitoring of the wildfire situation in Kyrgyzstan, 2001-2022
Get PDFThe publication came as one of the results of the project titled “Enhancing the capacity of the developing countries in Central Asia on effective use of space applications for drought monitoring and early warning through the Regional Drought Mechanism”, initiated and sponsored by the Russian Federation. It expounds on the connections between wildfires, drought and desertification, while giving a statistical overview of the wildfire history in Kyrgyzstan. The report presents general historic wildfire patterns in temporal and geographic terms, presenting conclusions on which regions, times of the year, altitudes and land types are most susceptible to fires. The authors primarily used satellite-derived data and geospatial datasets to arrive at their conclusions.
Данная публикация стала одним из результатов проекта «Укрепление потенциала развивающихся стран Центральной Азии (ЦА) в эффективном применении космических технологий для мониторинга и предупреждения засух через Региональный механизм мониторинга засух», инициированного и спонсируемого Российской Федерацией. В отчете повествуется о связи природных пожаров с засухой и опустыниванием, а также представляется статистический обзор возгораний на территории Кыргызстана. Публикается завершается приведением закономерностей пожаров, представляя заключения о том, какие регионы, времена года, высоты и типы земель являются наиболее пожароопасными. Основными источниками информации для исследования стали спутниковые данные ДЗЗ, а также геопространственные наборы данных.Initiated and sponsored by the Russian Federatio
Building the Central Asia drought information system in Kyrgyzstan : progress and the way forward : feasibility study
Get PDFDrought events have intensified and increasingly threaten the sustainable development of Kyrgyzstan, harming the country’s agriculture and many other sectors of the economy. High exposure is due to rising temperature peaks, lack of awareness, aging of agricultural and other infrastructure. This comes against a background of shared risks posed by climate change, natural disasters and the persistence of social inequalities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, the development of a drought monitoring and early warning system appears appropriate. Numerous projects by the UN and other international organizations, as well as government measures to ensure food security and environmental sustainability, are bearing fruit, but their effectiveness could be increased through the introduction of high-tech solutions based on the use of space applications. World practice shows that for disaster monitoring purposes it is optimal to use remote sensing products together with data collected on the Earth’s surface. One such solution should be a geographic information system for droughts, which is being developed within the framework of the project “Drought Information System for Central Asia, a pilot project”, which is being implemented by ESCAP with the financial support of the Russian Federation.
The study has two core objectives. Firstly, it aims to review and disseminate the results of a pilot project for the development of competencies of Kyrgyzstan officials and specialists in the field of monitoring drought events achieved in 2018-2022. Secondly, it describes priority areas for further capacity development activities in the field of drought mitigation for 2022-2023 and beyond. The description of priority areas ends with a list of brief recommendations for each topic considered. The recommendations are addressed to all national and international structures interested in reducing the harmful effects of drought on the socio-economic development of Kyrgyzstan. When drawing up recommendations, special attention was paid to their practicability. Open data, including publications of specialized UN agencies, sets of normative documents, quantitative data from statistical portals of Kyrgyzstan and international organizations, was the main source of information for the study. Internal ESCAP research served as an additional source of material, as well as facts and opinions collected at various seminars, conferences, interviews within the UN system and government agencies in the Asia-Pacific region.</p
Asia-Pacific trade and investment trends brief 2022/2023 : South-East Asia
No full textThis brief covers recent trends and developments in trade and investment. It has been produced as an accompaniment to the Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Trends 2022/2023.</p
Impact of COVID-19 and climate change on debt of Pacific island countries
Get PDFThis policy brief outlines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, together with climate change, on the debt profile of the Pacific Island Countries (PICs). It proposes measures that the PICs could adopt to avert the impact of unsustainable debt levels. The policy brief draws on the findings of background papers and presentations delivered at the Pacific Regional Debt Conference, held in April 2022.</p
Advancing the digitalization of trade supporting documents in the Eurasian Economic Union member States and beyond
Get PDFThe Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union (ЕАЕU), which entered into force on I January 2018, prioritized electronic customs declarations. However, most trade supporting documents (TSDs) used for customs clearance remain in paper form due to various reasons, such as legal issues and national features of TSD workflow within the common customs territory. Unfortunately, the failure to embrace electronic documents is counter to the modern digital world and not efficient for international
trade.
The aim of this study is, therefore, to review the current practices of EAEU member States and their business approaches for submitting TSDs to customs authorities, identify possible business models for advancing TSD digitalization in EAEU, and propose standard-based and alternative innovative business models and possible practical solutions that could spur the transition of economic operators in the countries of EAEU to submitting documents electronically.
To clearly identify the objective of the study, all existing TSDs were determined and grouped. Legal aspects of TSD workflow regulations in the EAEU were reviewed as a basis for making assessments, comparisons, and perspective proposals. Advantages and disadvantages of the EAEU member-States' business models and business needs in TSD digitalization were revealed. Trends and innovative business models for TSD digitalization were described and analyzed from the perspective that one would be practical within EAEU. Proposed solutions discussed in this paper are based on the UN/CEFACT data model, e-data convertor, a data pipeline concept, EDI based on artificial intelligence, IoT solutions, and open trade blockchain data.
Results of the assessment showed that more active and efficient steps should be taken to facilitate TSD digitalization in all of the EAEU member-States and to align the levels of the trade environment for digitalization in general. The electronic TSD models can help avoid the need to manually convert and rekey data, and for physical contacts between participants and ultimately speed up supply chains without disrupting the existing information systems of the EAEU member states. One key recommendation for this transition is for regulators, such as the Eurasian Economic Commission, the EAEU member-States Governments and stakeholders to coordinate their efforts and make them more comprehensive. Accordingly, TSD digitization is an important and necessary step towards achieving cross-border paperless trade. Currently, there are several models for the transition to electronic documents and data in the course of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) interactions. However, an issue still remains on how to facilitate implementation of TSD models among the business community and government agencies in practice. In this regard, the accession of countries to the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific will contribute to promoting the TSD digitalization approaches described in the study. </p
National policy framework for electric mobility development in Cambodia
No full textElectric mobility holds great potential for Cambodia, as they can bring numerous benefits to the country. Transition to electric mobility can help in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector since the transport sector is a major contributor to Cambodia's overall emissions. By promoting the use of Electric Vehicles (EVs), the country can take a step towards reducing its carbon footprint. There have been various interventions undertaken to increase the market uptake of electric cars in Cambodia. These include infrastructural measures such as building EV charging stations; regulatory and financial measures, such as an incentive for people to shift toward EVs through EV import duties reduction; and others. However, these well-intentioned efforts and policies are fragmented, hindering the progress to achieve the defined long-term goal.
This report focuses on creating a draft National Policy Framework for EVs outlining the key barriers across the EV value chain for Cambodia and targeted implementation measures. It will serve as input for Cambodian policy makers to support transport decarbonization in the country by promoting policies and initiatives for the transition to passenger based EVs (including private and public transport modes) and to develop strategies in support of a sustainable transport system.Financially supported by the China-ESCAP Cooperation Programme Fun
Dushanbe action plan: proposals on future implementation of forecasting sustainable urbanization tool
Get PDFThis Action Plan was developed through the project, “Forecasting Sustainable Urbanization: Support for Sustainable Infrastructure Planning in Cities”, led by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The project was supported through the China-ESCAP Cooperation Programme. Overall guidance to the project was provided by Office of the Chairman of Dushanbe