WTO, Asian Development Bank and World Bank bring TS4D initiative to Asia and the Pacific
The TS4D initiative, launched in September 2024 by the World Trade Organization and the World Bank, offers a platform for knowledge, technical assistance and capacity building to help economies better leverage trade in services for development.
Arsenio Balisacan, Secretary of the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development of the Philippines, delivered keynote remarks at the opening. He said: "The opportunity is substantial. Yet a larger volume of services exports, on its own, is not the development outcome we seek. The central question is whether expanding services trade can generate productivity growth across the economy and good jobs for a much wider group of workers and firms. The answer depends on what services grow, how they connect with other industries, and whether businesses and workers have the capabilities to take part.
"This is where the WTO-World Bank Trade in Services for Development initiative is especially valuable. Its competitiveness dashboard, policy database, work on good regulatory practices, export promotion lessons, and statistical support can help governments ask more precise questions. Diagnostics matter when they lead to a sequence of reforms that governments can implement and assess."
In her opening remarks, WTO Deputy Director-General Johanna Hill said: "For many years, trade and development strategies have focused primarily on goods. Services have often been treated as supporting activities. That picture is changing. Services are now central to economic growth, employment and international trade."
"For developing economies, this presents important opportunities," she added. "Translating the potential of services trade into a practical policy agenda can be difficult, but the TS4D initiative can help developing countries overcome the challenges they face in leveraging services trade for growth."
Wempi Saputra, Vice-President for Sectors and Themes at the ADB, said: "We at ADB see services trade both as a pillar of competitiveness and a means of delivering better opportunities for people. Our experience points to some key lessons: first, Asia's shift towards services industries is happening, and the region must keep pace. Second, an enabling environment for services trade takes sustained, long-term support, which ADB is well placed to provide. Third, regional cooperation can help economies align on common rules, share the costs of reform and unlock gains beyond national efforts."
Gonzalo Varela, Practice Manager for Trade Policy and Facilitation at the World Bank Group, said: "Transport, telecoms, finance and professional services are inputs into everything else an economy produces, so opening them to trade and competition raises productivity and creates better jobs downstream. TS4D helps the World Bank Group better engage with our clients to decide which of those reforms to do first and see them through to implementation."
The Conference, hosted by the ADB, was attended by trade officials from 25 economies across Asia and the Pacific. It included sessions on services trade competitiveness, good regulatory practices, digital services, and services export promotion strategies. The conference was followed by a training activity provided by the WTO and World Bank for government officials from the region on the different analytical tools developed in the context of the TS4D initiative.
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