Enhancing Public Availability of Customs Information
In the Islamic Countries
15
solution typically takes the form of a Trade Information Portal (TIP). The TIP is designed as a
unique entry point to the full universe of trade-related information, from legal texts, forms, and
descriptions of procedures, to selected data and statistics. In countries with a Single Window, it
is often logical to bring the TIP together with the Single Window system, to put together a
comprehensive IT-enabled solution for understanding trade procedures, obtaining all relevant
information, and ensuring rapid processing of declarations and other legal documents. The Case
Studies in Section 4 show different approaches to the use of a TIP. Typically, it is only developing
countries, many with World Bank assistance, that formally refer to these entry points as TIPs.
But there are examples of successful TIP-like interventions in high income economies as well, in
particular Singapore. By centralizing information, a TIP both reduces information costs as far as
possible, and also favors coordination among government agencies, as it requires them to
collaborate on development of the TIP and resulting information exchange within the
administration. Full details on particular TIPs are presented in the context of the country case
studies.
1.2. Empirical Methodologies
The main methodology used for Sections 2 and 3 is narrative combined with descriptive
statistics. Concretely, the report uses measures like the mean to track average performance by
group, including over time where multiple data periods are available. The core of the report,
however, is a set of case studies. Those are discussed separately in the next subsection.
In addition, the report has also used a structural gravity model to quantify the global trade
benefits of improving public information availability; these results are referenced in the
Introduction. The methodology for this analysis is set out in full in Kumar and Shepherd
(Forthcoming), and is based on a gravity model in the style of Anderson et al. (2018) augmented
to include a measure of public information availability from the TFIs. The model is estimated
using current best practice, as set out in Kumar and Shepherd (Forthcoming). Due to data
limitations, it is only impossible to include 53 countries, although they account for over 90% of
world GDP and exports. Among those countries, only Turkey, Indonesia, Brunei, Morocco,
Tunisia, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia are OIC member states. Given that this is a non-
representative sample of the organization’s membership, it is not meaningful to split out results
by members and non-members. However, Annex 2 presents results for OIC member states for
which data are available. The approach taken in the Introduction is therefore to use the global
results to motivate the importance of this discussion on public information availability, by
demonstrating the economic gains that could result from moving forward in this area. The
methodology is only described in outline here, but a detailed description is available in Kumar
and Shepherd (Forthcoming).
1.3. Case Study Methodologies
Section 4 presents four literature-based case studies and three field-visit based case studies. Of
the literature-based case studies, two are in OIC countries (Malaysia and the UAE), and two are
in non-OIC countries (Singapore and Mexico). The rationale for choosing these countries is to
give a mix of income levels and geographies, as well as to show countries that are working to
improve, as well as those that are at or near the global best practice frontier. The methodology
for these case studies is based on a review of the relevant literature. Given that there has been