Paperless Trade to Enhance Bangladesh’s Competitiveness
2 August 2017
The Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute organized a validation workshop to assess the impact of paperless trade facilitation in Bangladesh.
The scoping study presented the
- Costs of helping government and private sector agencies transition to a paperless system;
- Long-term costs needed to maintain the system effectively;
- System interoperability; and
- Cyber security concerns.
According to the study, Customs, banks, and port authorities stand to gain from transitioning to a paperless system. Recommendations to improve Bangladesh's overall trade, including establishment of a coordinating mechanism, negotiations with international partners, choosing the right technology, and establishing continuous dialogue with civil society, non-government agencies, and other stakeholders to ease the implementation process, were also proposed.
In his address, Mr. Tofail Ahmed, Commerce Minister, Bangladesh, emphasized that paperless trade will promote Bangladesh's competitiveness in the global trade regime by reducing time and cost of trading across the border, and ensuring accountability and transparency. He also reported that Bangladesh agreed in principle to sign the United Nations Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific.
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