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Wednesday, 10 February 2021 03:07 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Charumini de Silva
Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena yesterday called for a review and reduction of plethora of procedures inhibiting ease of doing exports and imports.
“There is a greater scope for our policymakers to reduce the number of procedures and requirements involved and also to avoid duplication if any. Hence, it is time for us to reassess the real need of many of these regulatory frameworks,” he said.
In this regard, Gunawardena said the launch of the ‘Step-By-Step Trade Procedures Functionality’ of the Sri Lanka Trade Information Portal (SLTIP) yesterday awakens insights into how many procedures and measures are in existence when doing trade with Sri Lanka.
SLTIP is housed at the Department of Commerce (DoC) and was initially carried out with the support of World Bank and Australia Aid. As a complement to the portal, International Trade Centre (ITC) with DoC embedded the step-by-step procedures functionality. The technical support for this was provided within the framework of the European Union (EU) – Sri Lanka Trade Related Assistance project implemented by the ITC and funded by the EU.
The Minister also said SLTIP is one of the key initiatives in contributing to Sri Lanka’s vision of ensuring ease of doing business, and is one of the main components of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Facilitation implementation plan of Sri Lanka.
The step-by-step functionality contributes to enhance access to trade-related information and transparency of trade procedures for selected products in Sri Lanka and to drive simplification reforms of such procedures.
Available in English, Sinhala and Tamil the step-by-step functionality provides useful, clear, precise and up-to-date information on export and import procedures in Sri Lanka in an easily accessible manner for the business operators.
He said the platform therefore contributes to fulfil enhanced transparency and predictability of trade information in Sri Lanka for the benefit of policymakers, border regulatory agencies and the business community alike.
“The SLTIP together with the new feature, step-by-step functionality is a repository of trade related regulatory information and procedures in one platform. This helps traders to reduce the time and cost of having to visit multiple organisations to get information, and is reduced to a click of a button on the computer.
“This would facilitate in particular SMEs in expanding their trading activities at a lower cost and in a shorter time. The Trade Information Portal, enhanced with new functionality, would facilitate their endeavours to engage and integrate into international trade,” he said.
Noting that the Minister’s discussions with the ITC senior management both in Colombo and Geneva have revealed excellent work that has been carried out benefitting the business community and also the many Government agencies under Trade Ministry such as the DoC, EDB and others, Gunawardena requested EU for their further support in continuing technical assistance with the ITC, as it is the main UN and WTO agency for delivering assistance to SMEs.
“My Ministry is committed to assisting SMEs and building their capacities. The project of Export Processing Villages (EPVs) expected to establish 1,000 EPVs, is an initiative of my Ministry. It is set to link up existing agriculture, fisheries, and services sectors to export companies. It will have the dual goal of developing rural production within a formal enterprise model and link those with the export supply chain, as well as to upgrade local production industries as import replacements,” he added.
He reiterated that the Trade Ministry is committed to closely coordinate with the public and private sector as well as international organisations to ensure sustainability of the step-by-step functionality in future.
The Minister commented the generous support extended by the EU, ITC, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in implementing this important project for the benefit of the traders.
