On 1 November, ESCAP warmly welcomed Dr Armida Alisjahbana as the new Executive Secretary. “The Asia-Pacific region has in recent decades seen remarkable social and economic progress. Much of this success has been built on strong foundations – on the richness and diversity of its cultures, and on the energy of the people who have changed the world by transforming their own economies. However, the fruits of this innovation and ingenuity can only be fully realised once we bring meaningful and sustainable change to the lives of ordinary people,” said Ms. Alisjahbana. Prior to joining ESCAP, Ms. Alisjahbana was Professor of Economics at Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, Indonesia, a position she assumed in 2005. From 2009 to 2014, she was Minister of National Development Planning and the Head of the National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), Indonesia.

A recent ARTNeT survey has confirmed previous observations of gender disparity in ARTNeT. When asked about what barriers women professionals face in participating in opportunities that could influence policymaking, over 52% of over 100 respondents reported that women professionals are less likely to receive promotions or engage in higher level research projects. About 44% of all respondents agreed that women professionals are less likely to attend and represent their respective organizations at policymaking platforms such as conferences and workshops. Over one-third of the respondents also noted that women's research and writing are less likely to be published/cited/mentioned, and men are considered to have, on average, more diverse or solid backgrounds/experiences than women.

Recognizing the variety of barriers faced by women professionals, ESCAP and ARTNeT, with the newly launched Women in ARTNeT (WIA) campaign, will strive to provide them with capacity building, networking and leadership training opportunities and enhance the contribution from women to trade research and policymaking.

While women with jobs involving low and middle-skill routine tasks are at higher risk of losing their jobs due to automation, women professionals are challenges no less: women are 15 percent less likely than men to be managers and professionals, and 19 percent more likely to perform routine tasks, as studies done by IMF and others suggest. The article has identified “providing women with the right skills” and “closing gender gaps in leadership positions” as two ways to help women professionals break the glass ceiling and achieve professional growth. 

The gap between men and women in social, cultural and economic equality is not inevitable. Bridging this disparity has been a goal of policymakers to reduce overall poverty and improve standard of living. The existing literature has typically overlooked feminist economics, especially the ramifications of trade policies with respect to gender. To address this issue, the Commonwealth Secretariat has been trying to make governments and institutions mindful of the differences in the actual and potential benefits of a policy that are realized by the two genders. As a part of this wider effort, the editors of Trading Stories, Marilyn Carr and Mariama Williams, seek to integrate gender analysis with trade policies. They facilitate this by addressing a broad range of concerns associated with trade, such as health, food security and labour standards, among others. Carr and Williams examine these policies beyond just economic implications in terms of wages and employments, but also social status, household dynamics, standard of living, among others.

For the full book review please visit here.

On the 8-9 of November 2018, our member Thammasat Institute of Area Studies (TIARA), Thammasat University, Thailand visited and delivered lectures at the Foreign Trade University (FTU), Hanoi, Vietnam, also an ARTNeT member. Three professors from TIARA namely Associate Professor Suphat Suphatchalasai (PhD), Associate Professor Chanin Mephokee (PhD), and Assistant Professor Pornthep Benyaapikul (Dphil) delivered lectures on “How to Cooperate with Universities to Promote Research Capacity of FTU”. This comprised of three session including Session I: Developing Strategies for Building Research Capacity and Cooperation, Session II: Seven principles for strengthening research capacity and Session III: TIARA’s Experiences to Promote Research Capacity and Internationalization.

Help rank the think tanks for the 2018 Global Go To Think Tank Index - make think tanks in your country and regions properly reflected in the survey findings.

ARTNeT ranked 36th in the think tank network category in 2017 and we invite you to support ARTNeT in the survey this year!

Answer the survey here.  

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) is launching a call for submissions of good practices, success stories and lessons learned in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. The submissions will be analyzed by a dedicated inter-agency team coordinated by UN DESA, and the results will be made available online for easy access and broad dissemination. Where applicable, the submissions can serve as inputs to thematic preparations for the 2019 sessions of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF).

For more information about this call please visit here. 

The Asia-Pacific Economic Statistics Week (APES 2019) is designed as a regular forum for experts and managers involved in economic statistics production and dissemination in Asia-Pacific. The organiser is pleased to invite papers for the APES 2019, which will be organized within the theme of Integrating economic statistics in monitoring Agenda 2030. The present call for papers pertains to the seminar component of APES 2019, where analysis relevant to economic statistics production and dissemination are presented and discussed by experts from National Statistical Offices (NSOs), Central Banks, research institutions, think tanks and international organizations.

For more information about this call please visit here. 

Our partner United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) in partnership with the ESCAP will organize a three-day conference on transforming economies, in Bangkok, Thailand on 11-13 September 2019. This conference will discuss the challenges of productive job creation in many different country contexts, across all developing regions. It will engage with current debates around the future of work in the face of rapid labour-saving technological advances, the changing nature of globalisation, and their implications for the prospects for structural transformation in low and middle-income countries.

Interested applicants wishing to present original research at the conference on the topics please visit here for more information. 

The Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility (TFAF) will provide two types of grants to developing and LDC Members who have been unable to access support for their Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) commitments through regular channels.

For more information please visit here. 

Inadequate export quality infrastructure in Kyrgyzstan is a key obstacle for Kyrgyz exporters. A survey of over 300 companies on non-tariff measures (NTMs) found 58% of Kyrgyz exporters to be facing challenges with various regulatory and procedural obstacles to trade. Inadequate testing and certification facilities in the country is a major challenge making compliance with technical requirements difficult – especially those of the Eurasian Economic Union and the European Union.

The report recommends upgrading domestic infrastructure, enforcing quality compliance, streamlining procedures and diversifying export portfolio.

For the full report from our partner ITC please visit here. 

The study, co-authored by ARTNeT advisor Biswajit Dhar, published by the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, identifies many serious limitations of the data on FDI inflows. The study discusses briefly the scope and implications of the changes made to the FDI policy in 2016 and analyses the reported inflows in the context of FDI policy changes and the thrust sectors of Make in India, with emphasis on the manufacturing sector.

For the full book please visit here. 

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The ARTNeT Secretariat welcomes submissions of policy briefs, working papers, book reports, research reports, and book reviews by ARTNeT members, partners and collaborators. For any submission to be considered, the editorial 'Guidelines for Submissions to the ARTNeT Working Papers Series' must be adhered to.

If you are an ARTNeT member, partner or collaborator and would like to publicise your publications, research or events in the next newsletter, please e-mail us at artnetontrade@un.org.