Improving the Border Agency Cooperation
Among the OIC Member States for Facilitating Trade
56
3.1.3. Country initiatives
There are a number of country specific BAC initiatives within the Arab region. However, the
current activities seemed to be predominantly in the area national (inter-agency) BAC rather
than international BAC. Therefore, on those initiatives will not be go into detail. It is important
to note, though, that national BAC activities often provide a useful stepping stone to
international BAC activities. An interesting country initiative in Abu Dhabi and the United Arab
Emirates will be presented as a full case study in Chapter 4 of this report.
3.2. BAC activities in the countries in the Asian Region
3.2.1. Country indicators
The Asian region consists of 18 OIC member states that are relatively scattered geographically,
not forming a continuous area. However, as a region, they are very significant. The total
population is tremendous, 930 million people, and they cover a vast geographical area, almost
10.8 million square kilometres. In terms of their geography, the Asian countries also have
many neighbouring countries (3.9 on average), but slightly fewer (2.4 on average) are other
OIC member states.
Also the Asian region is formed of relatively competitive economies. Their average overall
World Economic Forum global competitiveness index is 4.2, which would mean the 62nd place
in the country ranks. Within the Asian region, the LPI is at a similar level than in the Arab
countries. Malaysia and Turkey have the highest overall LPIs, taking the 25th and 30th
positions in the global ranking. The Asian country average is 2.67, which would put them on
the 92nd place in the ranking. Table below shows the key indicators for the 18 Asian countries
in regards to BAC activities.
The Asian countries have a relatively balanced foreign trade, with only a slight export surplus
and with a half of the countries having a deficit. The average exports and imports per capita
are relatively low, significantly lower than in the Arab countries. In the Doing Business study,
Malaysia has the shortest distance to frontier (DTF) at 79.1%. The average for the Asian
countries is 58.9%. In the trading across borders indicator, Albania scores highest with 91.6%
and the average is also slightly higher at 59.8%. In the Asian region, there are other countries
that have high scores, namely Malaysia (86.7 %) and Turkey (81.0 %).