– draft strategy to be reviewed over the next two days

GUYANA’s trade facilitation roadmap 2019-2024 will be officially launched on Friday, paving the way for the next phase of its implementation.

The trade facilitation strategy document will guide the local trade facilitation reform process, from the end of 2019 to 2024. “In this five-year plan we have articulated a single vision which is supported by eight main goals and 33 activities,” said Chairman of the National Committee on Trade Facilitation, Patrick Hyman, during his remarks at the commencement of module two of the 2019 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) empowerment programme for the national trade facilitation committee, at the Ramada Hotel, on Monday.

He said it is important that persons, who are participating in the programme, keep the vision statement at the fore of their minds. Hyman quoted the vision statement which reads: “Guyana aims to improve its standing as an effective trade partner in the global value chain, through the implementation of key trade facilitation reforms described in this roadmap…It will reduce trade processing time by 50 per cent and related transaction costs by 30 per cent by the end of 2024…it will also improve the position World Bank’s trading across border position, which in turn can contribute towards enhancing Guyana’s ease of doing business.”

The strategy document, which is in its draft stage, will be further finalised and improved by

participants from the Bureau of Statistics, the Guyana Marketing Corporation and other organisations, over the next two days. The participants will be guided by facilitators from UNCTAD.

“We are grateful for the continued support from the secretariat of UNCTAD and the financial support of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings via her Majesty’s revenue and customs of the British government,” said Hyman, adding that those contributions have made the workshop and the Guyana trade facilitation roadmap a reality.

One of the facilitators of the programme, Economic Affairs Officer of UNCTAD, Bismark Sitorus, was optimistic about the outcome over the next few days.
“We have the draft of the roadmap which will be improved and validated in the first two days of the workshop…this is going to be a very challenging exercise, but it is your document,” said Sitorus.

The workshop is the third in a series of specialised intensive programmes, which were facilitated by UNCTAD. The first module of the empowerment programme was completed in March this year. The module focused on planning skills for implementing trade facilitation reforms.

And, most recently, several persons participated in an online course, which expanded their knowledge on trade facilitation. As a follow up in module two, apart from participating in the validation of the draft trade facilitation strategy document, participants will be involved in a training of trainers programme on Wednesday and Thursday.

Participants will be responsible for knowledge transfer to new members of the national trade facilitation committee and for spreading knowledge about the committee to all concerned individuals. “Guyana has taken a number of steps to modernise its customs administration and promote trade facilitation. These include the Ratification and Notifications requirement – Guyana ratified the TFA on Nov 30, 2015 and submitted five requisite notifications to the WTO (World Trade Organisation during the period 2016-2018, including those on its transparency commitments, and contact points for offices responsible for coordinating donor support,” former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, said in his remarks during the launch of the first module in March.

“Trade facilitation reforms are important. They will allow us to improve the efficiency of our systems and will bring numerous spill-over benefits which include reducing transaction costs associated with importing and exporting goods, boosting our export competitiveness, helping to sustain our economic growth, improving our attraction to foreign investors, facilitating easier entry into foreign markets, improving revenue collection, contributing to job creation, improving the business climate, and facilitating more efficient and transparent delivery of public services,” said Greenidge.