Establishing Well Functioning National Trade Facilitation Bodies (NTFBs)
In the OIC Member States
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- Allowing stakeholders a tolerance period for including items in the agenda.
- Keeping minutes of the meetings.
- Stakeholders’ approval of the minutes.
- Setting up a follow-up strategy for implementing issues.
- Developing a web page
- Issuing publications (annual reports, directories, newsletters, manuals, best practices,
etc.)
This study has found that the success factors mentioned above can be clustered into two
interdependent bases of an NTFB, namely, the organizational and the institutional.
The organizational basis will contain those factors that aim to constitute an efficient division of
labour and work specialization. Thus, from the abovementioned elements, the NTFB’s
“organizational factors” may be: political commitment from hierarchies of public and private sectors,
a legal framework, the appropriate membership and attendees, as well as start-up funds.
The institutional basis encloses those factors that provide certainty in the human content of NTFBs.
These create standardised patterns of behaviour within a community, facilitating adaptation and
interaction among stakeholders. Institutional factors create routines which will produce automated
responses, and will permit stakeholders to develop common knowledge and practices. Therefore,
from the above mentioned “success factors” the NTFB’s institutional factors may be the case of:
strong legal and institutional framework, consistency in holding meetings, and regular
communication strategies.
As intimated previously, different countries are at different stages when it comes to trade facilitation
and NTFBs. Institutions experiment constant changes based on human interest. These changes are
gradual but ongoing. Indeed, NTFBs are evolving bodies that may not function properly for a period
of time but may become functional at some point. Three main phases in the evolving process that is
the lifecycle of an NTFB have been identified. The first phase is establishment of an NTFB. The second
phase is having an NTFB that is functional. The third phase is making an NTFB sustainable over time.
The challenge for OIC member states is to understand what phase they are in with regard to
establishing a functioning NTFB, and to take the organizational and institutional steps suggested in
this study in order achieve the ultimate goal. In the following subsection there are specific
recommendations in this regard.
4.4.2. Recommendations
The following recommendations are targeted at these different stages, with the aim of reaching the
third stage of course. The various recommendations pertaining to the three different following stages
can be followed in the order outlined below
4.4.2.1. The first phase: In order to establish an NTFB, these elements are
recommended
When a country takes the decision to establish its own National Trade Facilitation Body, certain steps
can be followed, such as the following:
 Identification of a Coordination Agency