Global Survey of 143 Economies on Facilitating Digital Business

Global Survey of 143 Economies on Facilitating Digital Business

Recently, the United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific’s – UNESCAP, released the report of its latest global survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation.

The Global Survey on ‘Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation’ is conducted by UNESCAP every two years. Its purpose is to review the progress made in trade facilitation reforms in their respective member countries.

The survey is conducted jointly by the five United Nations Regional Commissions (UNRCs) since 2015.

Five United Nations Regional Commissions:

1. Economic Commission for Africa -ECA,
2. Commission for Europe-ECE,
3. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean-ECLAC,
4. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific-ESCAP
5. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia-ESCWA

The survey for the year 2021 also included assessments of 58 trade facilitation measures included in the ‘Trade Facilitation Agreement’ of the ‘World Trade Organisation’.

India’s performance:

• In this survey, India has secured 90.32 percent marks in the year 2021 as compared to 78.49 percent in the year 2019.
• India’s overall score is also found to be higher than many ‘Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD’) countries like France, UK, Canada, Norway, Finland etc and its overall score is higher than the EU average score.
• India is the best performing country in comparison to South and South West Asia region (63.12%) and Asia Pacific region (65.85%).

India’s performance on five key indicators:

1. Transparency: 100 percent
2. Formalities: 95.83 percent
3. Institutional arrangement and support: 88.89 percent
4. Paperless business: 96.3 percent
5. Cross-border paperless trade: 66.67 percent

Various measures taken by the Government of India for technical interventions to bring transparency in day-to-day administration-

• Aadhar Enabled Biometric Attendance- AEBAS: This will facilitate real-time tracking and accurate monitoring of employee attendance, thereby ensuring punctuality among employees.
• ‘e-Office’: It aims to introduce more efficient, effective and transparent inter-government and intra-government exchanges and processes.
• ‘Government e-Market’ (GeM): Through this provision has been made for detailed cataloging of different categories of goods and services, transparency and ease of purchase, and a user-friendly dashboard for monitoring the supply and payment and purchase.

Source: PIB

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