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While railway is considered an economical and efficient mode of transportation, cross-border railway connectivity in the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) region is constrained by varying track gauges, among other factors.
Cambodia’s investment law that was put in place for the first time in 1994 consisting of 9 chapters was amended in 2003 to revise a number of articles (RGC, 1994 and 2003). The 2003 Amended Law on Investment was an important step, among others, with regard to the investment approval scheme by adopting the automatic approval system of the investment projects which must be completed within 31 working days after the investment project was filed to be considered for approval (RGC, 2003, Article 7 New).
Even as India’s FTA negotiation priorities have seen a noteworthy course correction to match her domestic priorities, we are yet to see a similar convergence in relation to negotiation strategies adopted at the multilateral level.
Abstract: This piece will start with the crisis in the global trading system in 2022, as precipitated by the trade war between the US and China, and impasse on WTO reform, and the paralysis of the dispute settlement system. It will then describe the best-case scenario for 2030, focusing mainly on global trade cooperation centred around the WTO, but also mentioning the cooperation in two related areas, i.e., climate change and data governance.
At the recently concluded Colombo Summit, the leaders of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) group of countries adopted a Master Plan for Transport Connectivity. Now, we need a framework for its operationalisation.
The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) offers EU companies a valuable and unique breakthrough into China's enormous cloud market.
In 2020, the female labour force participation rate was below 50 per cent in Bangladesh and India (36 and 20 per cent, respectively) and 59 per cent in Bhutan.
The European Union (EU) and China agreed on the draft of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) text in January 2021, after over seven years of negotiations. Both parties opine that a distinct feature of the CAI is the inclusion of a standalone Section on sustainable development (SD) and investment. While around a dozen EU trade agreements contain an SD Chapter, it is rather exceptional that an investment agreement includes comprehensive SD provisions.
The almost certainty that a woman is about to be the new Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), does not change the fact that the world of international trade has been very slow in accommodating progress in women’s participation as policy-makers. Over the period of 20 years, female professional staff population at the WTO has increased from 31% in 1995 to 45% in 2016 – that is an increase of just above 0.5% per year. Clearly, much more has to be done for the WTO Secretariat to break the glass ceiling within the organization and its bodies.