<<

>>


We recognize the significant potential of regional economic integration and interconnectivity to promote inclusive growth and sustainable development, and commit to strengthening regional cooperation and regional trade agreements. We will strengthen coherence and consistency among bilateral and regional trade and investment agreements, and to ensure that they are compatible with WTO rules. Regional integration can also be an important catalyst to reduce trade barriers, implement policy reforms and enable companies, including micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, to integrate into regional and global value chains. We underline the contribution trade facilitation measures can make to this end. We urge the international community, including international financial institutions and multilateral and regional development banks, to increase its support to projects and cooperation frameworks that foster regional and subregional integration, with special attention to Africa, and that enhance the participation and integration of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, particularly from developing countries, into global value chains and markets. We encourage multilateral development banks, including regional banks, in collaboration with other stakeholders, to address gaps in trade, transport and transit-related regional infrastructure, including completing missing links connecting landlocked developing countries, least developed countries and small island developing States within regional networks.



With a #tagcoding hashtag per article, anyone can tag content relevant to its status and implementation, and share it via social media as explained in the #tagcoding Handbook or the video #tags in support of easy information retrieval (YouTube).