2020 Forum on Globalization and Industrialization

Globalization at the Crossroads:

Risk, Resilience and Recalibration in Global Trade and Value Chains

December 15, 2020

15:00 – 16:30 (CET)
Online Event

The COVID-19 pandemic is putting our understanding and approach to globalization to the test. The cumulative effect of supply bottlenecks and falling consumer demand coupled with increasing calls for domestic production of (essential) goods is challenging the existing global architecture of production, trade and investment flows.

Yet, the pandemic is only the latest in a series of global shocks and emerging mega-trends that have shaken the pillars of international production networks. Indeed, COVID-19 seems to be accelerating some of the trends that were already manifesting within the world’s value chains, including the growing role of digitization, regionalization of production networks, and the focus on proximity to key consumer markets.

Companies and governments alike are currently reassessing the way goods flow across borders, and they are in search of targeted solutions for tackling fragility in industry supply chains. Thus, the process of recalibration of global trade and production networks is also expected to bring to the forefront novel industrial policy approaches to reap the benefits from GVCs in both developed and developing economies.

Key questions to be discussed at the FGI 2020 are as follows:

• How can we understand value chain risk as a result of external shocks and emerging mega-trend and do we need to rethink existing approaches to international production and global sourcing?
• What options do companies have for improving resilience of their global footprint?
• How can policy and international cooperation help build resilience? Are there already “good practices” at the horizon?

Speakers:

LI Yong (Director General, UNIDO)

Gabriel FELBERMAYR (President, IfW Kiel)

Ricardo HAUSMANN (Professor, Harvard University)

Rania AL-MASHAT (Minister of International Cooperation, Egypt)

Susan LUND (Partner, McKinsey and Leader, McKinsey Global Institute)

Registration/Livestream:

You may join the event on December 15, 2020 between 15:00-16:30 (CET) either by direct registration via Zoom, or follow the Youtube livestream.

More about FGI:

The Forum on Globalization and Industrialization (FGI) is a series of annual forums jointly organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) and the Kiel Centre for Globalization (KCG) since 2016.

The Forum brings together policymakers, international organizations, academia and private sector. FGI highlights the areas where stakeholders are already working together, and provides a platform for discovering of new avenues of cooperation on the issues related to industrialization, global trade and investment. In the age of technological and international trade uncertainty, FGI is aiming to address the challenges and opportunities of globalization and industrialization, especially in the current COVID-19 crisis.

Source: UNIDO