United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Transport Division

Background

The initiative on the establishment of the Regional Network of Legal and Technical Experts on Transport Facilitation is one of the important components of the Regional Strategic Framework for the Facilitation of International Road Transport, which was adopted by the UNESCAP Ministerial Conference on Transport held in Bangkok on 12-16 March 2012.

Purposes

The network is a key modality for building an effective legal regime and technical capacity for international transport facilitation in the region. It aims to assist member countries in upgrading the professional level of their officials and experts involved in transport facilitation, providing legal support for the formulation of relevant agreements, measures and projects and promoting the harmonization and coordination of different legal instruments on transport facilitation.

In the region, valuable experience has been gained and a wealth of knowledge exists at the national, subregional and regional levels with respect to successful approaches to both the formulation and subsequent implementation of transport agreements.

Through the network, experts from the member countries, international, regional and subregional organizations and institutions may:

Exchange information;
Share experience;
Coordinate with each other;
Provide legal/technical support for accession to international conventions;
Pinpoint areas of legal conflict between different subregional agreements and identify their implications;
Suggest solutions for legal conflicts between different agreements in geographically overlapped countries;
Suggest the ways to connect the countries in different subregions under different subregional agreements;
Study emerging issues in the field of transport facilitation; and
Explore ways for regional harmonization of legal instruments.

Negotiators of agreements, legal and technical experts from governments, international, regional and subregional organizations/institutions, transport professional associations and academic institutions, as well as legal practitioners from transport and transport-related industry are welcomed to join the network.

The network will focus on information exchange, experience sharing, seminars, training, expert meetings, group studies and individual studies on the issues related to legal and technical aspects of transport facilitation.