VLADIVOSTOK (Sputnik) — ESCAP is spearheading a regional arrangement, called the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific, which will be open for signature for a year, starting next October.
"We are promoting the common harmonized paperless trade system, which we believe will result in a gain of about $250 billion, if countries agree on paperless trade," ESCAP Executive Secretary Shamshad Akhtar said on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.
Akhtar said the arrangement was a "very well conceptualized" market integration process, which relied on dismantling the trade barriers, as well as promoting seamless connectivity in the region, which was basically extending Asia's highway and broad band network.
