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Draft for discussion with the Department of Trade, Industry and Fair Competition. Not yet agreed. Not for circulation.

Turks and Caicos Islands · Gap analysis

A Trade Facilitation
and Intelligence Platform

A gap analysis: what exists today, what needs to improve, and what is underway.
A proposal for discussion with the Department of Trade, Industry and Fair Competition (the Department), Ministry of Finance, Trade and Investment, with technical support from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Answer the questionnaire → See working examples

Why this assessment

From trade information to trade services and data

A Trade Facilitation and Intelligence Platform is one place where traders and investors find a procedure and complete it, and where the Department sees the data these procedures produce. The gap analysis documents what traders and investors find hardest today and what the Department wants the platform to do first, so that any cooperation is built on evidence.

A trader or investor usually deals with several institutions. Each one asks for its own steps, documents and fees, and each one weighs on the decision. A trader or investor should understand where to go, what they will receive, how long it will take, and who is responsible for the result. For them, the platform can make each procedure clear, simpler and, where it helps, available online.

For the Department, the same platform produces data: how many requests arrive, how long each one takes and where requests stall. These figures show how trade moves and how trade policy is implemented. Digitalisation is not an objective in itself; it is one way to improve the trade and investment environment.

What the gap analysis covers

Three questions

What exists today?

Procedures, responsible institutions, systems and data, and which of them are digital.

What needs to improve?

The main difficulties, priorities and opportunities for improvement.

What is underway?

Reforms, initiatives and partnerships at work, to build on rather than duplicate.

After the assessment

Possible areas
of cooperation

The assessment will not prescribe a single solution. Depending on the needs identified, possible areas of cooperation could include greater transparency, simpler procedures, online services and trade intelligence. Where digitalisation is chosen, the order is: document, simplify, then put online. Putting online a procedure that nobody has simplified only makes it faster to get wrong.

Transparency

Where the Department sees the need, possible assistance could help document each trade and business procedure from the user’s point of view: steps, documents, costs, times, legal basis and responsible office, kept up to date by that office.

Simplification

Depending on the needs identified, possible assistance could help review steps and requirements that no longer serve a clear purpose, and clarify which office is responsible for each action.

Online services

Where appropriate, and once procedures have been simplified, possible assistance could help put priority services online, for example licences, permits or complaints, with one entry point for all of them. UNCTAD’s eRegistrations platform is one option among others.

Trade intelligence

If the Department asks for it, possible assistance could help turn the data these procedures produce into simple dashboards: number of requests, processing times and bottlenecks, to monitor trade and the implementation of trade policy.

In practice

Working examples

These examples show what other countries have already built, in the order the work follows: document, simplify, then put online. They are an inspiration, not a plan for the Turks and Caicos Islands: anything similar here would follow the Islands’ own rules and priorities.

1 Transparency

Rwanda

A trader imports cereals

Rwanda’s Trade Portal is built on UNCTAD’s eRegulations system. A trader who wants to import cereals finds, in one place, every step, every office, the cost, the time and the law behind each requirement, before going anywhere.

Rwanda Trade Portal home page with search by product and operation
Cereals importation permit procedure with its steps on the Rwanda Trade Portal
Summary of the procedure: institutions, result, cost, duration and laws

Source: rwandatrade.rw, managed by the Rwanda Revenue Authority.

Burundi · another product

What will I pay at the border?

Burundi’s trade portal includes a duty and tax calculator built on the same system. A trader enters the product, its origin and its value, and sees every charge before the goods arrive. Example: 10 tonnes of rice from Tanzania.

Burundi duty calculator with rice from Tanzania entered
Calculation result listing nine charges and the total amount due

Source: infocommerce.obr.bi, managed by the Office Burundais des Recettes. Figures from a live calculation, for illustration only.

2 Simplification

Ten principles of simplification

Once every step is visible, the government can see which ones are not needed. UNCTAD’s ten principles of administrative simplification guide that review, step by step, with the offices concerned. Most of the gains come from changing practice, not the law.

Fundamental principles

  1. Publicity of procedures. Every procedure is published, step by step, before you start.
  2. Legality of controls. Each step you go through is required by a law or regulation.
  3. Relevance of requirements. You are asked only for what is needed to decide.
  4. Presumption of good faith. Your declaration is trusted; checks come afterwards.

Forms and documents

  1. No redundancy. You never give the same information or document twice.
  2. Free forms. Forms cost nothing.
  3. Simple copies. A simple copy is accepted instead of a certified one.

Services at a distance

  1. Online applications. You can apply without visiting an office.
  2. Online certificates. You receive the result online, and others can verify it.

Interactions

  1. Grouped steps. Steps of the same kind happen at the same time, in the same place.

Source: UNCTAD Digital Government Programme, “How to simplify administrative procedures”, Digital Government Academy.

3 Digitalisation

Jamaica

An investor applies online

In June 2026, Jamaica launched an online platform for its special economic zones, developed by the Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority with UNCTAD support. Each jurisdiction’s set-up is different. What the investor sees: one entry point, every zone on a map, one online process, and a certificate that anyone can verify.

Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority public portal landing page
Jamaica zone map with filters and zone locations
Details for Montego Bay Free Zone shown on the Jamaica zone map
Digital special economic zone developer certificate with QR verification
Cuba and Bhutan · trade services

One account for every trade permit

The eRegistrations system behind Jamaica’s service can also bring a country’s import and export permits together in one single window, and can add ready-made services such as ePhyto, the online phytosanitary certificate exchanged with other countries through the IPPC ePhyto Hub.

Cuba foreign trade single window home page
List of foreign trade services in the Cuba single window
ePhyto presentation page
ePhyto applicant dashboard in Bhutan

Sources: cuba.eregistrations.dev (in development) and ephyto.eregistrations.dev.

Answer the questionnaire

Participation begins with the questionnaire. Answer it, then decide whether you want to discuss possible next steps.
Answer the questionnaire →

Completing the questionnaire is voluntary and creates no commitment. Each response reflects the view of the entity that sends it, not a formal position of the Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Subject to the partners’ mandates and available resources, the responses could inform a short assessment and a concept note for the platform. The findings would be shared with the Department first, and would not be published without its consent.