Former APEC Executive Director Recently Appointed to the Board of GCEL's Asia Logistics Council

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - May 7, 2013 - PRLog -- Dubai, United Arab Emirates, - April 8, 2013: Former Executive Director of APEC, Ambassador Dato' Muhamad Noor Yacob led a high level GCEL delegation at an international conference aimed to exemplify best practices to reduce trade costs, increase trade and create greater employment. Ambassador Noor presented how GCEL’s HumaWealth Program, powered by a Digital Economy Platform, will provide the tools and the roadmap to reduce the annual trade costs of OIC countries by USD 75 billion thereby triggering increased trade and millions of jobs.  

Under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the United Arab Emirates and in cooperation with OIC’s Islamic Development Bank, the United Nations ESCWA conducted the “Regional Training Workshop on Trade Facilitation, Infrastructure and Trade Costs Policies in ESCWA region.” The workshop hosted public sector officials from the Arab World and leading executives from Regional Economic Commissions of the United Nations, WCO, WTO, World Bank and more.

Ambassador Noor was recently appointed to the Advisory Board of Asia Logistics Council, a founding member of GCEL. The Ambassador is the former Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) whose members include 21 countries from the Americas and Asia. He was also the former WTO Chairman of the Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation.    

Ambassador Noor addressed the gathering during the opening session stating, “Triggered by economic crises, the G8 has been seeking rescue from the technology industry as one of the ways to help today’s economy. This initiated the global expedition to identify the ‘Digital Economy’ and until today a clear definition has yet to be outlined. I am honored to  join GCEL for the concrete answer it brings to this dilemma. GCEL’s vision and innovation are helping are helping to transform international trade making it more efficient, more cost effective, and more integrated than ever before.”

The Digital Economy Platform, introduced by Ambassador. Noor will reduce MEA region trade costs from an average of 16% to 7% achieving a yearly savings of USD 63 billion. Stressing the comprehensive reach of the Program, it has the potential to expand MEA’s trade by USD 337 billion and support nearly 35.5 million new jobs in the region.

GCEL’s Co-Chairman, Captain Samuel Salloum, stated “We must learn from history, while leveraging what the 21st century technology has made available for us.”

GCEL’s Director General, H.E. Nancy Bakir, former Minister of Culture and Public Sector reform in Jordan and High Commissioner for Arab Civil Society at the League of Arab States said: “GCEL, together  with 40% of the MEA countries’ trade partners’ governments,  has recently conducted a world-class survey assessing the trade efficiency of these countries. The results indicate high demand to adopt GCEL’s proposed Digital Economy Platform that offers efficiency in trade transactions.” H.E. Bakir further added, “Investing in youth education alone is inadequate as it has a reverse effect if such investment is not accompanied with fast enough economic growth to accommodate the youth graduates with jobs that offer them dignity and secures their basic needs and ambitions. The HumaWealth Program meets the needs of our youth. "

More than 150 governments, 21 IGOs/NGOs and the world’s most prominent firms servicing 60% of the world’s GDP now embrace GCEL’s HumaWealth Program. An international “Genesis Event” will be held in the coming months launching a global Request for License process to select the most qualified finance, insurance and technology firms under an equal opportunity process to deploy the Digital Economy Program globally.

About GCEL:

The Global Coalition for Efficient Logistics (GCEL) is a Swiss based non-profit public/private partnership. GCEL’s HumaWealth Program is founded on revolutionary Soft Infrastructure that lays the foundation for the 21st century global Digital Economy Platform. Through a highly innovative business model, this platform will be provided free of cost to every business in the world, insuring sustainability of the system at the highest levels. This global initiative will make millions of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) more bankable by providing them with the tools to reduce their trade costs by 30% and operating costs by 15% while connecting them to markets around the world.  In addition, the program will create a vast new USD 6 trillion market opportunity for the world’s finance, insurance, and technology industries by 2020. GCEL’s members and supporters include 156 governments, 21 NGOs and the world most prominent finance, insurance and technology firms servicing 60% of the world’s GDP.

www.gcel.net