The report proposes a development strategy that it claims effectively combines trade liberalization with the promotion of poverty reduction and human development. The report identifies the types of national policies needed to ensure that all people realise the potential benefits of trade. Such policy recommendations include investments in infrastructure, higher education and R&D (research and development) for competitiveness, adoption of strategic trade and industrial policies, a renewed focus on agriculture and rural development, and measures for combating “jobless growth”.

The ideas, the report claims, could contribute to a better globalisation. The report contends that developing countries of Asia and the Pacific need bold new domestic policies to benefit from free trade, and that the industrialized economies should back fairer trade rules to give poorer nations the chance to compete in the global marketplace.

The report also points out that the trade liberalization programme of the new South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) offers very limited reduction in import duties for intra-regional trade, which is not much more than that offered under the World Trade Organization.

Resident Representative of the UNDP, Bhutan, Mr. Toshihiro Tanaka, said at the launch that the report was by and for the people of Asia and the Pacific. It drew on the many studies commissioned by UNDP and that it was the product of indigenous thinking by hundreds of people in the region.