In particular, cooperation in improving trade-related procedures, infrastructure and services could be enhanced in line with the recent trade literature which finds non-tariff trade costs to be significant determinants of trade flows.” Of the 2,025 completed projects under grants or interest-free loans, 390 were in transport, power supply and telecommunications.' Technical cooperation, export credits and special loans for SMEs are other important contributions related to trade. The findings clearly indicate the potential of South-South cooperation to enhance the trade capacity of low-performing developing countries. In line with recent trade literature, the ESCAP analysis uses the Logistics Performance Index (l=low to 5=high) as a proxy for trade costs and assumes an export-cost elasticity of 0.5. Taking East Asia as a benchmark, the analysis assumes that South Asia, Africa and Latin America and Caribbean would each narrow the differences in LPI scores by one-fifth.