CAREC Institute Contributed to the Central Asian E-Commerce Forum

CAREC Institute Chief Economist Dr. Hans Holzhacker participated in the panel “Building Bridges for Growth: Development of a Digital Trade Corridor” of the Central Asian E-Commerce Forum, which was held on 28 September 2023 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The panel session was moderated by Mr. Nurlan Kulbatyrov, Deputy Director of “QazTrade”, a key research company in Kazakhstan in the field of trade and economic relations under the Ministry of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan. Dr. Holzhacker’s main messages were that trade facilitation measures and corridor management are as important as hard transportation infra-structure, and that digitalization and paperless trade play a crucial role in this regard. He emphasized that the reliability and security of e-systems should be further enhanced so that the sometimes still used practice of paper back-up can be fully abandoned. He also stressed that falling trade costs thanks to digitalization and e-commerce are good developments but expose countries to intensified import competition; therefore, policies are needed to improve competitiveness as well as the re-qualification and support measure for those who are negatively impacted by this competition.