Proceedings of the 13th Meeting of
The COMCEC Trade Working Group
6
performance is faster in lower income countries. As such, scores are likely to converge further
in the future.
3.3. Current State of Play in OIC Member Countries
Dr. Shepherd informed that for looking at performance within the OIC, the report examines
averages by regional groups (African, Arab, Asian), and compares them with scores for
Singapore as a proxy for the global best practice frontier.
Although the sources do not always agree Dr. Shepherd expressed that the Asian Group is the
strongest performer within the OIC, followed by the Arab Group, and the African Group. But
consistently with the catch up analysis presented above, there is evidence from both data
sources that performance is improving most rapidly in the African Group. However, all three
regional groups remain well within the global best practice frontier proxied by Singapore He
also emphasized that areas of strongest performance within the OIC include establishment of a
National Trade Facilitation Committee (NTFC) and involvement of the trade community, as
well as publication of regulations and basic information.
As a heterogeneous group, averages across the OIC member countries necessarily obscure
substantial differences at the level of individual countries. In each group, there are relatively
strong performers that stand out as having taken important steps to move closer to the global
best practice frontier. In the African Group, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Senegal stand out in this
respect. For the Arab Group, it is the UAE, as well as Tunisia, Qatar, and Morocco. In the Asian
Group, Turkey, Malaysia, and some of the Central Asian countries are relatively strong
performers. While this analysis is encouraging, it is important to note that in some cases,
performance varies significantly from pillar to pillar, whereas the best performing countries
globally tend to move forward on a broad basis.
This review of the data shows that, Dr. Shepherd added, the OIC has a considerable stock of
knowledge, both generally and within each regional group, that could be shared with other
member countries to help promote performance upgrading. Performance is generally
improving over time, and there is substantial evidence of a catch up dynamic. Particular areas
of focus moving forward include publication of regulations, advance publication, appeal
procedures, and advance rulings for the African Group, advance rulings and stakeholder
consultations for the Arab Group, and advance publication as well as establishment of NTFCs
for the Asian Group.
3.4 Discussion
In response to questions from delegates, the following points were clarified:
Question: It is hard to see geographical relevance in the regional division of the country
groupings. Also, it is hard to understand from the presentation why African group is
performing well?