ARTNET Research Programme 2005-06 Call for proposal for an ARTNET Regional Study on Trade in Services
Background The Second Consultative Meeting of Policy Makers and Research Institutions held in Macao, China on 6-7 October 2006 approved the launch of a second ARTNeT regional study focusing on trade in services. As explained in the ARTNeT research programme approved during that meeting: The first ARTNeT regional study is examining agricultural trade liberalization trends in the region, focusing on the differences between liberalization through preferential trade agreements and through the multilateral trading systems and highlighting the needs of LDCs. To complement the first regional study, and to address the identified need for sectoral analysis of the impact of regional and preferential trade agreements, the second ARTNeT regional study will focus on trade liberalization in services. The service sector accounts for over 60% of GDP in most developed countries, and is also a sector that is rapidly gaining importance in Asia-Pacific developing countries. It also now represent about 20 per cent of total trade (BOP basis), and this increasing as many services, which have long been considered genuine domestic activities, have increasingly become internationally tradable. However, research on services trade, especially empirical research on trade in developing countries by their own research institutions and teams, lags behind the research on this topic done in the developed countries. This is so mainly because of lack of data. The regional research study is expected to tentatively tackle the following issues: (1) data availability and needs for policy analysis in the service sector, including the development of methodologies for data collection, (2) services trade liberalization in preferential trade agreements, (3) liberalization in services trade: Asia-Pacific LDCs needs and priorities, and (4) outsourcing. Since services trade is impacted through domestic regulatory measures and not lack of market access, studies that would analyze the impact of unilateral trade liberalization and regulatory reforms, such as the express delivery services liberalization in Hong-Kong, may also be undertaken. Sectoral (e.g., education, health, banking, distribution, tourism, telecom…) and/or case studies may be particularly useful, especially if they include collection of primary data All research projects funded by ARTNET are expected to result in trade-related policy recommendations to support the development of the region. They should contribute to trade research capacity building in the region and results should be of interest to more than one UNESCAP subregion.
2. Call for proposal and funding availability: ARTNeT is calling for submission of proposals for a regional research study on trade in services for a tentative amount of US$30,000 (see section 4 on regional research team requirements). ARTNeT would separately provide funding (including travel) for one research team meeting in the country of the team leader or in Bangkok, as well as printing and dissemination of research findings. Regional study proposals may include an optional research programme for an additional amount not exceeding US$16,000. Alternatively, institutions who would like to participate in the regional study on services trade through contribution of a specific chapter/paper may submit short proposals for amounts between US$5,000 and US$7,000 to the Secretariat for consideration (individual proposals
are particularly welcome from emerging research or academic institutions or researchers in LDCs in the region).
3. Eligibility Proposals are welcome from any national-level research or/and academic institution in South, Southeast, East, Northeast, and the South Pacific developing countries members of UNESCAP. Participating institutions need not be member of ARTNeT at the time of submission of proposals, but will need to apply and be granted membership in the event their proposal is selected for funding1.
4. Regional research team requirements 1. The team leader of the project will be a senior researcher with experience in conducting research in the area of trade in services and trade policy issues. 2. The research team will be composed of researchers from at least two other research institutions, preferably a mix of junior and senior trade researchers. 3. The research team will be composed of researchers located in at least two different eligible subregions (e.g., South Asia and Southeast Asia, East Asia and South Pacific). 4. The research team will include at least one researcher from a research/academic institution located in an LDC. 5. No more than one researcher in the team may be based in a developed country or outside the eligible region.
5. Proposal Submission and format • Intent to submit a regional research study proposal should be communicated to the Secretariat before 19 December 2005 via an email (artnetontrade@un.org) indicating that your institution intends to submit a regional study proposal before 17 January 2005. Proposals received from institutions that did not inform the secretariat of their intent to submit may not be considered. • Research proposals should be received no later than 17 January 2005 (to be sent to artnetontrade@un.org). Earlier submissions are strongly encouraged. • Research proposals should be less than 10 pages long. The suggested outline format is as follow: 1. Title 2. Research problem [1/2 to 1 page] 3. Literature review and expected contribution of the proposed study to it [1 to 2 pages] 4. Research question(s) and scope of Study / Study outline [1/2 to 1 page] 5. Methodology and data [1 to 2 pages] 6. Expected research outcome and policy relevance [1/2 to 1 page] 7. Proposed research team 8. Time line 9. Budget 10. Annex: CV of research team members already identified
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Membership is free. For details, please consult ARTNeT membership guidelines in the ARTNeT members section of the www.artnetontrade.org website.
6. Proposal Selection [Tentatively: 1 February 2005] The proposals will be reviewed by the Secretariat with help from at least one external technical advisor and collaborating institutions. The following criteria will be used for evaluation: • Relevance of the proposal to the approved ARTNeT research programme • Relevance of the expected results to policy makers in the region • Relevance of the expected results for gender mainstreaming in trade policy • Technical quality, clarity and completeness of the proposal • Completeness and competency of the research team • Potential contribution to trade research capacity building in the region 7. Other matters • The Secretariat will enter into an appropriate contractual arrangement with the researcher(s) or the research institutions whose proposals have been selected for funding and implementation. • Implementation will start as soon as possible after proposals and research team members have been selected. A complete draft of the study is expected to be ready by October 2005 for presentation to policy makers at the Third Consultative Meeting of Policy Makers and Research Institutions. • The research fee will be disbursed in multiple installments based on defined outputs (e.g., submission of detailed methodology, preliminary drafts…). • Please contact the secretariat at artnetontrade@un.org if you have any question. 8. Useful references • ARTNeT Resources for Researcher – Trade in Services (accessible through www.artnetontrade.org or directly at: http://www.unescap.org/tid/artnet/res/ts_resource.asp)