United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)

Contact

Susan F. Stone

Director, Trade, Investment and Innovation Division,

UNESCAP

United Nations Building,

Rajadamnern Nok Avenue,

Bangkok, 10200, Thailand

Tel: +66 2 288 1902

E-mail: stone [at] un.org

Web: www.unescap.org

Adnan Aliani

Chief

Strategy and Programme Management Division,

UNESCAP

United Nations Building,

Rajadamnern Nok Avenue,

Bangkok, 10200, Thailand

Tel: +66 2 288 1602

E-mail: escap-spmd [at] un.org (escap-spmd[at]un[dot]org)

Web: www.unescap.org

escap-spmd [at] un.org

Web

https://www.unescap.org

Address

United Nations Building,
Rajadamnern Nok Avenue,
Bangkok, 10200, Thailand

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is the regional development arm of the United Nations for the Asia-Pacific region. With a membership of 62 Governments, 58 of which are in the region, and a geographical scope that stretches from Turkey in the west, to the Pacific island nation of Kiribati in the east, and from the Russian Federation in the north to New Zealand in the south, ESCAP is the largest regional commission in terms of membership. It is also the largest United Nations body serving the Asia-Pacific region, with over 600 staff.

Established in 1947 with its headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, ESCAP seeks to overcome some of the region’s greatest challenges. It carries out work in the following areas:

• Macroeconomic Policy, Poverty Reduction and Financing for Development;

• Trade, Investment and Innovation;

• Transport;

• Environment and Development;

• Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction;

• Social Development;

• Statistics;

• Subregional activities for development; and

• Energy.

ESCAP focuses on issues that are most effectively addressed through regional cooperation, including:

• Issues that all or a group of countries in the region face and for which it is necessary to learn from each other;

• Issues that benefit from regional or multi-country involvement;

• Issues that are trans-boundary in nature, or that would benefit from collaborative inter-country approaches;

• Issues that are of a sensitive or emerging nature, and require further advocacy and negotiation.

ESCAP’s mandate is to promote economic and social development in the Asian and Pacific region by fostering cooperation between its members and associate members. The organization’s objective in the area of trade and investment, as defined in its Strategic Framework for the biennium 2016-2017 approved by the General Assembly, is to support the contribution of trade, investment, enterprise development, innovation and technology transfer to inclusive and sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region.

TCB-related programme

The strategic direction of ESCAP subprogramme on trade, investment and innovation is derived mainly from the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the Istanbul Programme of Action, the Vienna Programme of Action and the SAMOA Pathway, as well as Commission resolutions on trade, investment and science, technology and innovation.

It aims to achieve: (i) enhanced knowledge among ESCAP member States of trends, emerging issues and evidence-based policy options in the area of trade and investment and related fields of enterprise development, innovation and technology development and transfer, for inclusive and sustainable development; (ii) strengthened regional cooperation mechanisms in trade, investment, enterprise development, innovation and technology transfer for inclusive and sustainable development; (iii) increased capacity of ESCAP member States to formulate and implement policies on trade, investment, innovation, enterprise development and technology transfer for inclusive and sustainable development, including those that are gender-responsive. To achieve its objective, the subprogramme supports the efforts of ESCAP members and associate members to develop the capacity, institutions, and legal and regulatory frameworks necessary to participate more effectively and competitively in international trade and investment activities. The subprogramme assists countries in strengthening trade and investment policy regimes through issue- specific and practical trade policy research and analysis, training, exchange of experiences, provision of information and toolkits, integrated regional programmes, targeted advice and regional consensus-building, including multi-stakeholder policy dialogues.

The main beneficiaries are government officials from UNESCAP members and associate members, particularly LDCs, LLDCs, and countries with economies in transition, as well as small island developing States (SIDS), in the Asia and Pacific region.

The following impacts have been achieved:

• Additional countries in the region have made progress towards accession to WTO and the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA).

• There has been an increase in member countries’ national capacity to effectively negotiate, conclude and implement multilateral and other trade arrangements supporting the internationally-agreed development goals.

• More relevant and quality trade-related research and policy recommendations have been made available to policymakers and other stakeholders in the region.

• There has been deeper integration among the member countries of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA).

ESCAP’s guiding frameworks for science, technology and innovation (STI) have raised awareness and increased knowledge on how STI can be effectively implemented for sustainable development, and some member countries have shown strong interest in follow-up activities. The sharing of knowledge and expertise through government-business dialogues in general (e.g. the Asia-Pacific Business Forum and the ESCAP Business Advisory Council) contributed to member countries’ progress against the MDGs and designing policies and strategies to meet the ambitions of the SDGs

Selected TCB programmes and initiatives in this guide

Global Advocacy

Trainings and capacity building programmes

Trade Policy Development

Legal and Regulatory Framework

Supply Capacity

Trade Facilitation

E-commerce Services & Digital Economy

South-South and Triangular Cooperation

Successful projects

Successful TCB activities include:

(i) Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), an open regional network composed of leading trade research institutions across the region, that aims to equip the region with a mechanism for enhancing the capacity of research institutions; (ii) WTO/ESCAP technical assistance programmes for government officials to develop increased knowledge and awareness of issues related to accession to WTO, implementation of WTO agreements and commitments and/or issues related to negotiations within the framework of the Doha Development Agenda; and (iii) launching of the United Nations Network of Experts for Paperless Trade and Transport in Asia and the Pacific (UNNExT) supporting implementation single window and related measures for trade facilitation.

Partnerships

In carrying out work related to trade capacity building, ESCAP has developed partnerships with the following organizations:

• ADB;

• ITC;

• OECD;

• The European Community;

• The Secretariat of the Integration Committee of the Eurasian Economic Community;

• UNCTAD;

• UNDP;

• UNECE;

• UNECA;

• UNECLAC;

• UNIDO; and

• WTO.

In addition, ESCAP’s joint initiative with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and a number of national research institutions led to the launch of the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT) in 2004.

For more information: www.unescap.org/our-work/trade-investment-innovation