15 - 16 April, Tempus Room, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Awni Behnam, Honorary President IOI, attended the 12th Session Meeting on Servicification For Economic Diversification. He reported on the Meeting which was an opportunity for experts to exchange views and good practices, including on servicification as an important channel to underpin sustainable development. IOI holds status as a non-governmental organization participating in the activities of UNCTAD in Geneva, and remains interested in topics connected to sustainable development and the Blue Economy.
The Meeting emphasized the essential importance and impact of digital services to trade expansion and flows and the underpinning of all this by reliable access to digital infrastructure and services and thus access to opportunities across the widening trade gaps in the developing world. The closing of that gap was defined as the central challenge to be addressed by the Meeting, as per Pedro Manuel Moreno, Deputy Secretary-General and Acting Secretary-General of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Over the two days, experts from different disciplines discussed how technological change, especially digitalization, automation and artificial intelligence, can accelerate economic activities and create new opportunities for developing countries to diversify production, increase their global value chain and strengthen economic resilience presenting both opportunities and challenges for developing economies.
A segment of the discussion was dedicated to data needs and gaps related to servicification so as to support policymaking in the area of trade policy, to enable developing economies to harness servicification for economic diversification and development in alignment with the objectives of paragraph 80.15 of the Geneva Consensus on improving the collection, accessibility and use of services trade data to inform policy decisions.