Explore the vast range of titles available.

The notion of free zone, appears frequently in commercial discussions, as being the place where you can develop a business, due to several facilities offered to both importers and exporters - facilities of a customs, fiscal and commercial nature. Many companies use the advantages of the free zone regime, as a good tool for fiscal optimization of costs. Under the conditions of globalization, it is becoming increasingly important to use tools that optimize the flow of goods. In this sense, free zones are the most suitable tools for optimizing both the flows of goods and the financial ones of companies. With so many advantages it presents a free area related to a waterway, such as the Danube River. Our study aims to analyze the opportunities and achievements of the free zones related to the Danube, in Romania; the addressability of this analysis is both to the business environment and to the academic one. The analysis methods are by excellence qualitative, thematic, comparative, applying the study, the expertise. Our study can be useful both to business people, as well as to researchers, students in the economic field; therefore, any suggestions for improvement will be welcome.

The importance of transport corridors for trade and development, including for some of the poorest countries in the world, is widely recognized in this book. A new consensus has also emerged that reducing trade costs and improving access to corridors is not just a matter of building infrastructure. The policies that regulate transport services providers and the movement of goods along corridors are important determinants of the social rate of return on such infrastructure investment. This book avoids optimistic assumptions regarding the prospects for new high-level agreements and decisions to facilitate transit or the possible benefits from increased use of technology. Instead, the authors argue that much can be done through the implementation of readily available existing tools. The use of these tools is often hampered by not only capacity constraints; but, equally if not more important, a lack of commitment. Political economic factors in both the landlocked countries and their transit neighbors must be recognized and addressed. This book offers examples of possible implementation strategies that, while challenging, should in principle help in overcoming these political economic constraints. The main message is that to bring about efficient trade corridors governments and stakeholders should focus on properly implementing the fiscal, regulatory, and procedural principles for international transit that encourage quality-driven logistics services. The various implementation challenges are the primary focus of this book.

This study tries to investigate supply chain security through transit trade mobility (TTM) at a domestic and global level, highlighting the importance of using technological development (i.e. e-tracking systems) for enhancing monitoring and controlling levels. The qualitative data using descriptive study was adopted by reviewing the secondary data in nature such as statistical reports and existing studies. Furthermore, semi-interviews were conducted with managers; truck drivers as well as traders involved in the transit trade. Data were collected from 176 participants from Jordan a developing country. The outcomes of the study exhibit that the trading cost significantly decline for Jordan and other countries through the adaptation of e-tracking systems in their customs and trading activities. Consequently, the use of the e-tracking system for transit good trading reduces the need for its escorting by the customs union, where bulky and high-duty good remains an exception. Improved use of e-transit traffic has been observed, whereas the meantime for the overall TTM has been mitigated to more than eighty percent, which is followed by reduced smuggling rates by almost about eighty percent. An electronic TTM tracking system is preferable to be adopted for trading at transnational, regional, and international levels in other countries.

In the last two decades new emphasis has been given to the economic impact of geography, especially on the cost of being landlocked. From a development perspective, understanding the cost of being landlocked and its economic impact is critical, since one country of four in the world is landlocked (almost one out of three in Sub-Saharan Africa). Attempts to address the cost of being landlocked have mainly focused on regional and multilateral conventions aiming at ensuring freedom of transit, and on the development of regional transport infrastructure. The success of these measures has been limited, and many massive investments in infrastructure seem to have had a disappointing impact on landlocked economies. Although there may still be an infrastructure gap, this book, based on extensive data collection in several regions of the world, argues that logistics and trade services efficiency can be more important for landlocked countries than investing massively in infrastructure. Logistics have become increasingly complex and critical for firms' competitiveness, and a weakness in this field can badly hurt firms based in landlocked countries. This book proposes a revised approach to tackling the cost of being landlocked and a new analytical framework which uses a microeconomic approach to assess the trade and macroeconomic impacts of logistics. It takes into account recent findings on the importance of logistics chain uncertainty and inventory control in firms' performance. It argues that: (i) exporters and importers in landlocked developing countries face high logistics costs, which are highly detrimental to their competitiveness in world markets, (ii) high logistics costs depend on low logistics reliability and predictability, and (iii) low logistics reliability and predictability result mostly from rent-seeking and governance issues (prone to proliferate in low volume environments).

This book provides border management policymakers and reformers with a broad survey of key developments in and principles for improving trade facilitation through better border management, including practical advice on particular issues. In contrast to the traditional border management reform agenda, with its focus on improving customs operations, this book addresses both customs reform and areas well beyond customs-a significant broadening of scope. The book thus presents a new, more comprehensive approach to trade facilitation through border management reform: an approach that embraces a much wider, 'whole of government' perspective. The objective of this book is to summarize and provide guidance on what constitutes good practices in border management-looking beyond customs clearance. The contributions to the volume make clear that there are no simple or universally applicable solutions. Instead, the aim is to provide a range of general guidelines that can be used to better understand the complex border management environment and the interdependencies and interrelationships that collectively need to be addressed to secure meaningful change and improvement.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are partners in the War against Terrorism that has tremendous repercussions on their economies. Bilateral relations have been difficult, as Afghanistan blames Pakistan of interfering in their internal affairs, while the war in Afghanistan has spilled over to Pakistan. Plans to tap the natural resources in both the countries, to link the gas and oil fields of Central Asia to the Sea and to exploit the opportunities of the emerging markets in Central Asia cannot materialise as long as the disturbances in Afghanistan and western Pakistan go on. Economic factors are intertwined with non-economic ones, mutually determining each other. As the USA and their allies have started to pull out their troops from Afghanistan, the neighbours have to find a new modus vivendi. In August 2013 their leaders begun to sort out problems of the transit trade that is vital for Afghanistan and that Pakistan has to make sure not to lose.

This paper explores ways to unlock the potential for regional development and economic cooperation in the wider Central Asia region. It argues that understanding critical clusters of interrelated issues, and explicitly taking into account geopolitical and political economy considerations, are key in this regard. Regional countries and other stakeholders should focus on a few areas where there are real prospects for success in the short run; a combination of modest “win-win” initiatives and in some cases “bold strokes” that augment and change the distribution of benefits and hence make cooperation more likely to deliver progress.

Pakistan s population is growing and becoming more urbanized. By 2020, Karachi and Lahore will each have a population of well over 10 million people and several other cities will have a population of at least one million. These trends offer both risks and opportunities. Badly managed urban centers with poor services and slim opportunity for gainful employment could become centers of discontent and social conflict. Alternatively, properly managed and well-connected cities can help firms become more competitive, and with the right set of policies, promote industrialization and life-changing employment opportunities. In order to capitalize on these opportunities, Pakistan will need to take decisive steps to deepen the pool of skills, strengthen the commercial environment, upgrade infrastructure, diversify production, and climb up the technology ladder. Revitalizing Industrial Growth in Pakistan: Trade, Infrastructure, and Environmental Performance addresses ways in which Pakistan can revitalize its manufacturing by reducing the cost of doing business, improving the investment climate, and strengthening institutions to facilitate the flow of people, goods, and ideas and thus stimulate medium-term growth and job creation. Such revitalization is sorely needed to place the country on a sustained path of high economic growth. The authors lay out priorities and strategies for greening Pakistan s industrial growth and provide a comprehensive analysis of issues in the debate on this strategy. They examine the ways in which Pakistan can encourage and assist its private sector to fill the void in low-skilled labor-intensive manufacturing left by other economies and do so while creating and distributing new wealth. To increase the chances of success, appropriate actions will need to come from different actors in government, the private sector, and civil society. This book will be of interest to government officials and academic researchers working in the fields of industry, the environment, and energy, as well as to the general public.

India and Central Asia have shared a geo-cultural affinity and a long tradition of historical contacts that dates back to antiquity. There is convergence of views and interests between the Central Asian Republics and India, on fundamental issues such as; (a) need to maintain social harmony and equilibrium by promoting inter-ethnic harmony and peaceful co-existence; (b) commitment to secularism and democracy and opposition to religious fundamentalism; (c) recognition of threat to regional security and stability from trans-border terrorism, arms and drug trafficking, religious extremism and ethnicreligious secessionism; (d) commitment to the principles of territorial integrity of nation states and inviolability of state borders; (e) promoting economic, scientific and cultural cooperation and (f) ensuring peaceful and tranquil neighbourhood in Afghanistan. The Central Asian Republics, being cautious and wary of dominating influence of the powerful neighbours like Russia and China look towards India as a friend and partner, which does not have any political or territorial ambitions in the region. India is also expected to play a balancing role in the big power games in Central Asia.

Central Asia is often associated with the silk route or road, the longest overland trade route connecting China to Europe and one of the oldest in history. Growth opportunities and the future prosperity of the region are highly dependent upon the efficiency of its internal and external supply-chain connections, which is the focus of this report. Supply-chain connectivity depends on the quality of the infrastructure on specific routes. This study explains how supply chain fragmentation remains a serious obstacle to economic development of Central Asia and to Eurasian integration more generally. It provides a comprehensive assessment of the various factors that yet impede supply-chain integration, including weak transport and communications infrastructure, but as important, and perhaps more so, critical weaknesses in policy, institutions, and governance. Based on this assessment this report provides an insightful set of recommendations that, if taken up by the governments of Central Asia and by their key neighbors, will go a long way in promoting the effective integration of Central Asia into an increasingly connected Eurasian continental economy and with that into the global economy.