PNG ranks fourth in trade facilitation

PAPUA New Guinea is ranked fourth in the Pacific region in regards to the implementation of the United Nation’s trade facilitation measures which enhance trade.
The region is ranked last in the world, according to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific economic affairs officer Sangwon Lim.

Lim told The National that improvements were needed such as the progress towards paperless trade processes by government agencies.
He presented the findings of the 2017 UN Regional Commission global survey on trade facilitation and paperless trade at a workshop yesterday in Port Moresby.
“In terms of overall implementation of trade facilitation measures, you can see that East Asia is above 60 per cent whereas the Pacific Islands are the lowest ranking of the groupings at about 30 per cent.”
The regional rankings had Fiji with the highest level of implementation of trade facilitation measures, followed by Vanuatu, Tonga and PNG.

“PNG’s ranking is to do with the level of policy processes surrounding trade and its ranking is not necessarily determined by the volume of its trade,” he said.
“An example of this is where it is outranked by Vanuatu which comparatively has not as much trade as PNG.”
He said there was more to be done to become more efficient with trade processes. The National/ PNG Today