UNIDO/KCG Conference under the Auspices of T20 for Inclusive and Sustainable Development

The G20 Summit 2017 is going to be held on July 7-8, 2017 in Hamburg. When G20 was founded in 1999, it aimed at forming a platform for the governments of major economies in the world to discuss joint policies to deal with international financial stability challenges. Over time the G20 members have gradually broadened their goal from focusing on ensuring international financial stability and fostering economic growth to emphasising the key importance of having inclusive and sustainable development for all countries in the world. How to improve the distribution of globalization benefits among individuals within and between countries, how to better deal with resource scarcity and climate change challenges, and how to further develop related infrastructure and institutions to support fair and sustainable trade and investment belong to the key G20 topics, just to mention a few. Despite the vision of the G20 for a better world, the rising resistance to globalization, the increasing political and public interests for protectionism and nationalism and demonstrations of increasingly larger scales against G20 suggest that many individuals and organizations worldwide have not been really satisfied with the development of globalization over time, the distribution of its benefits and the achievement of G20. There is still a lot of room for improvement.

Think 20 (T20), an engagement group of G20, which consists of think tanks over the world and is led by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the German Development Institute in Bonn during Germany’s G20 Presidency, just published its 20 policy proposals to provide G20 with new research-based insights to help develop and adjust policies for more inclusive and sustainable development.  To deal with global challenges, there is no immediate remedy, however. Instead, long-term, trust-based and reliable joint efforts from individuals, organisations and governments over the world are more than required. To form joint efforts and develop joint policies, regular discussions and dialogues among different stakeholders from different countries in the world are of essential importance. One of such possibilities will be provided by the upcoming UNIDO/KCG Conference “Developing Inclusive and Sustainable Global Value Chains in the Digital Age” which is jointly organized by the Kiel Centre for Globalization (KCG) and the UNIDO under the auspices of the T20 network. The Conference aims at bringing key stakeholders from academia, business, politics and NGOs together to further work on existing and explore other potential options that the world and individual countries would need to help develop global value chains in more inclusive and sustainable ways that is expected to be advantageous for achieving the overarching goal of inclusive and sustainable development in the long run.

More information about the Conference can be found here.