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An Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach to evaluate factors that influence cross border trade facilitation: A case study of East-West Economic Corridor route

This research proposes a framework to evaluate cross border trade facilitation among East-West Economic Corridor route or EWEC (R-9 Route), which encompasses four ASEAN countries; Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The framework includes the study of factors that may influence trade facilitation along the economic corridor. They were broadly classified as time, cost and complication of overall trading processes. Then, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed to measure the influencing weight of each factor. Expert opinions are obtained through the interview of leading logistic experts - entrepreneurs, academic researchers and policy makers. The influencing weights of different factors were determined through the geometric mean of the AHP. It was revealed that the complication of overall trading processes is the most important factor that influences trade facilitation. The results obtained from this investigation helps in identifying appropriate factors and weights for the characteristic of R-9 Route, which can further be utilized in order to evaluate the trade facilitation in each of the four ASEAN countries.