Project Advisory Committee Meeting and the Researchers’ Meeting of the South Asian Trade and Transport Facilitation Audit Project

Dr. Saman Kelegama, Executive Director, IPS and Suwendrani Jayaratne, Research Officer, IPS participated in the ‘Project Advisory Committee Meeting’ and the ‘Researchers’ Meeting’ of the ‘South Asian Trade and Transport Facilitation Audit Project’. The meetings were organized by South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE) with support of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government.

The Trade Facilitation Audit Study aims at defining a regional benchmark for an acceptable level of trade and transport facilitation in South Asia, identifying trade and transport-related bottlenecks in the region, and assessing the benefits of removing these bottlenecks based on a regional benchmark. Country background reports of the South Asian countries were presented at the meeting with the session being chaired by Dr. Kelegama. The background report for Sri Lanka was presented by Suwendrani Jayaratne. The project advisory committee provided inputs and comments on the background reports as well as on the methodology and way forward. Mr. S. Rajendran, Additional Director, Sri Lanka Customs was also present at the meeting as a member of the Advisory Committee for Sri Lanka.