UN/CEFACT Annual Newsletter 2022

UN/CEFACT Annual Newsletter 2022

Dear UN/CEFACT expert community!

As we wrap up this eventful and impactful year, I am pleased to share our annual newsletter, summarizing our joint achievements over the year, as well as listing the key milestones and activities. As we are setting a course for a new 2023, we look forward to working together and contributing towards a sustainable and resilient trade in the years ahead.

Your efforts over the past year significantly contributed to guiding the post-COVID-19 recovery for international trade; restoring the disrupted supply chains as a result of conflict; and charting the way forward as we, at UNECE, embark on our next cross-cutting priority goal of "green and digital transformations for sustainable development in the UNECE region". Digitalization has always been central to the UN/CEFACT work and it will continue guiding us as we step up our efforts in advancing international trade in line with the global digitalization agenda.

Now, let me highlight a few important events that took place in 2022:

The 38th and 39th UN/CEFACT Forums were held in May and December 2022, which brought together over 1,500 experts in 30 on-line sessions, advancing on the UN/CEFACT project work.
28th UN/CEFACT Plenary session was held in October 2022, where the revised Recommendation No.2 was approved and over 20 e-business standards were presented along with 5 white papers and extensive guidance material.
125th Executive Committee meeting held in November 2022 adopted the UN/CEFACT Program of Work for 2023-2024 and extended the TOS mandate through 2025.
2022 meeting of the UN/LOCODE Advisory Group approved the Programme of Work 2022-2023 and appointed Chair and Vice-Chair of the Advisory Group and Convenor for the UN/LOCODE Maintenance Team subgroup.
2nd session of the Team of Specialists (ToS) on Environmental, Social and Governance Traceability of Sustainable Value Chains in the Circular Economy presented its draft policy paper on “Improving traceability of products along international value chains for circular economy and sustainable use of natural resources”.
Moreover, UN/CEFACT community contributed to the UNECE Regional Forum for Sustainable Development.

We also look forward to your participation and contribution in 2023 in person:

8-12 May: 40th UN/CEFACT Forum.
2-6 October: 41st UN/CEFACT Forum.
November: 3rd Session of the ToS on ESG Traceability of Sustainable Value Chains.
November: 2023 Session of the UN/LOCODE Advisory Group.
November: 29th UN/CEFACT Plenary Session.

We plan to start the new year with in-person activities and our 40th UN/CEFACT Forum is planned as a fully in-person event.

Together with UN Regional Commissions, we also plan to launch data collection for the 2023 edition of the UN survey for digital and sustainable trade facilitation.

We make every effort to ensure that UN/CEFACT tools and recommendation remain relevant and impactful, and you will see that our tools have been referenced in a number of publications, for example:

UN/CEFACT has also published 20 news items and 16 press-releases on UNECE website; total references captured in media amounting to 518 articles from January to November 2022.

Significant progress has been made on technical cooperation activities with support provided to transition economies, such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Among key achievements is rapid progress on implementation of the National Trade Facilitation Roadmap 2021-2025 in Kyrgyzstan and capacity building of over 100 trade facilitation experts in Central Asia.

Business Process Analyses were conducted on export of textile and pharmaceutical products from Kyrgyzstan and Georgia.

A number of training and guidance material which have been developed to help countries implement specific articles of the WTO TFA, especially article 10:

Training Material on Helping Micro- Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to Digitalize Their Procedures
Executive Guide on Electronic Certification Management System for Fresh Fruit and Vegetables
Executive Guide on eNegotiation
Executive Guide to Sustainable Tourism Experience Programs Technical Artefacts
Guide to the Implementation of Art. 1 para. 3 of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement: Trade Facilitation Enquiry Points

Blockchain pilots for global value chains (cotton, leather, wool and cashmere) were carried out in Brazil, India, Egypt, Peru, Turkey and Uzbekistan in cooperation with value chain actors in Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and UK.

For more information for UN/CEFACT and UNECE activities, please visit https://unece.org/trade/uncefact and www.unece.org.

With appreciation of all your support throughout the year,
wishing you a wonderful holiday season
& look forward to meeting you in 2023!

Are you a professional wishing to join UN/CEFACT expert community?

Click here to register

This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences
UN/CEFACT · Avenue Paix 14 · Le Petit-Saconnex · Geneva 1202 · Switzerland