Policy programmes should be developed to provide developing countries with sustainable capacity to plan and implement trade and transport facilitation initiatives.

Developing countries wishing to build a secure and efficient environment for trade now have a wide choice of available instruments and institutional structures. Multilateral efforts should be coordinated to help developing countries take advantage of each and every potential partner's role and competence as part of a knowledge-building, action-oriented system.

To adequately address the issues and problems discussed, global initiatives are being established that take advantage of the current variety of trade and transport facilitation measures. The Global Facilitation Partnership for Transportation and Trade (GFP) is part of an initiative that was first launched in 1999 by the World Bank in cooperation with various international institutions, including UNCTAD. Today the joint platform has approximately 200 partners. The platform serves as a one-stop window for information dissemination, policy advice and routing cooperation requests on behalf of beneficiaries in developing countries.

GFP is an outstanding example of cooperation among international institutions aimed at rationalizing the use of scarce resources and ensuring development gains for developing countries. UNCTAD members believed that the secretariat should report on GFP's development on a regular basis.

More information can be found in the programme of the event.