In early December 2007 the Southeast Europe Cooperative Initiative (SECI) celebrated the tenth anniversary of the umbrella Business Advisory Council for South Eastern Europe. SECI was formed to address the region's inexperience of working in a free market economy and to act as a focus for work to enhance cross border trade and transport. Based on the effectiveness of existing structures for trade facilitation in Western Europe (including SITPRO) SECI saw the need for the establishment of similar Southeast European PRO organisations. There are now 10 national PRO committees whose activities are coordinated by SECIPRO.
The SECIPRO network and the successful implementation of several World Bank initiatives have delivered considerable results including: improving the environment for cross border trade among the partner countries; minimised smuggling and corruption; lowered transaction costs and facilitated trade through a 63% reduction in clearance times; and an 80% reduction in crossing times whilst increasing the volume of trade by 46% and Customs revenues by 81%.
While SECIPRO has identified that trade facilitation is multi-faceted, it has maintained that transport facilitation is the key issue holding back economic development in the region. However, the security debate emerged high on the agenda at a SECI meeting in December. SITPRO gave a presentation on the EU Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) scheme and participated in a spirited discussion of the potential benefits to supply chain security and wider trade interests.
Return to SITPRO News: Issue 63, Winter 2007/2008
