South Caucasus Trade Study to identify a number of areas focusing on three thematic components: (i) Trade, export, investment, and private sector development measures, (ii) Border management, (iii) New developments in regional integration.

UNDP – with support from the Swiss Cooperation Office (SCO) – is launching the South Caucasus Trade Facilitation Project. It embodies a two-phase modular approach, focusing on three thematic components: (i) Trade, export, investment, and private sector development measures, (ii) Border management, (iii) New developments in regional integration.

ISET-PI has been contracted by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to carry out The South Caucasus Trade Study which will provide an overview of the issues falling under these three components and identify a number of areas for concrete follow-up. This review will be a stand-alone publication containing well developed conceptual analysis, a review of the state of play of these issues in the region. It will also inform the Phase II under which a regional project document that will serve as a feasibility study, to support the implementation of concrete activities and initiatives in these areas will be produced. It will reflect a strong emphasis on:

- Cooperation with and support for the further development of the private sector in the region;

- How the region as a whole can benefit from the implementation of Georgia’s EU DCFTA, as well as from Armenia’s EaEU accession; and

- People-centered approaches to trade that analyze social and environmental (as well as economic) dimensions, in keeping with the logic of the Sustainable Development Goals.