Establishing Well Functioning National Trade Facilitation Bodies (NTFBs)
In the OIC Member States
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propounds recommendations for establishing functioning NTFBs. Regionally speaking, from the 39
OIC Members that have a NTFB, 15 belong to countries from the Arab group (out of 22 countries), 13
to the Asian group (out of 18 countries), and 11 to the African group (out of 17 countries).
Lastly, Part 4 reflects the results of field trips to six OIC Member countries that have either
well-functioning or less well-functioning NTFBs. OIC Member States are grouped according to the
following criteria: a) Member States that have NTFBs or similar coordination mechanisms that are
not working properly; and b) Member States that have well-functioning NTFBs or similar
coordination mechanisms. Specifically, it analyzes the following concepts: description (name, year of
establishment, membership, structural organization, objectives, responsibilities, and funding etc.);
and NTFB performance (obstacles confronted, lessons learned, and achievements).
In order to select the appropriate field cases, the following factors were taken into account. Firstly,
regional distribution, secondly their performance over eight years in World Bank Trading Across
Borders, and thirdly whether they have NTFBs in place with some of the eighteen factors identified
by UNCTAD, in order to gain a preliminary idea as to whether they are functioning or not (see
appendix 2). As a result of these factors, the three field studies of non-functioning NTFBs were
Lebanon, Indonesia, and Uganda, and for functioning NTFBs, Jordan, Malaysia, and Morocco.
Bearing in mind that the objective of this study is to contribute to the establishment of properly
functioning NTFBs, this study resulted in the following findings:
 First, most of the countries that have performed remarkably well over the years when
trading across borders have had an NTFB in place that functions well.
 Second, countries that have established an NTFB exhibit constant achievements in trade
facilitation matters.
 Third, although there is no golden rule as to which elements to embrace when establishing
an NTFB, countries that include specific elements in their NTFBs tend to function well and in
a sustainable manner. These elements are the following: political commitment from
hierarchies of public and private sectors; including appropriate membership/attendees;
start-up funds, strong institutional and legal framework, consistency in holding meetings,
and regular communication strategies (internal and external).
 Fourth, this study clusters these “functioning factors” into two interdependent bases of an
NTFB: the organizational and the institutional.
 Fifth, the “organizational factors” of an NTFB are those that help the NTFB to achieve two
main objectives: 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, the appropriate membership and attendees, as well as start-up
funds.
 Sixth, the “institutional factors” of an NTFB are those that provide certainty and create
standardised patterns of behaviour in a community, facilitating the interaction between
stakeholders. Therefore, from the above mentioned “success factors” the NTFB’s institutional
factors may be the case of: a strong legal and institutional framework, consistency in holding
meetings, and regular communication strategies.