Export Development in the Digital Economy

Statement of Mr. J.-Denis Bélisle Executive Director International Trade Centre Executive Forum 2000 Montreux, 27 - 30 September 2000

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

Welcome to ITC’s second Executive Forum on National Export Strategies. This year’s Executive Forum centres on "Export Development in the Digital Economy". We have selected this theme for two reasons. The first is our conviction that the new information technology and its e-trade dimensions will have a profound impact on all economies including those of the developing world. The second is the need for this impact to be positive on the export trade of developing countries and economies in transition. The question is how to arrive at such a result. This Forum is part of ITC’s response to that question.

I am pleased to note that in addition to those gathered in this room today, some 500 e-commerce practitioners and specialists from 86 countries have registered to participate electronically in Executive Forum 2000. The views of these virtual participants will, I am sure, contribute significantly to our conclusions in the next few days.

Each participant in Executive Forum 2000 has been selected carefully. The group consists of 16 national teams, each with at least one export strategy-maker from the public sector and a senior representative of the business community. Unlike another major gathering now underway – the Olympic Games in Sydney – these national teams are not in Montreux to compete against one another. Rather, they are here, under the sponsorship of the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs, to share ideas on best practices for becoming and remaining competitive in the digital economy. Competition is what international trade is all about, but for the next three days the emphasis will be on collaboration.

Senior strategy-makers from another five developing and transition economies are also participating, several at their own expense.

To help us in our deliberations and to challenge our ideas, some 20 experts from well-known organizations have also agreed to come to Montreux. They are donating their time and I wish to thank them sincerely.

Where do we hope to be on Saturday when we sum up the results of our debate?

At last year’s Executive Forum, we concluded that two of the critical challenges confronting the national export strategy-maker involved assisting the business sector to:

• Reduce the cost of the export transaction; and

• Establish the capacity to compete internationally on the basis not only of price and quality, but also of time and service: something we called "total response capability".

In the 12 months since the 1999 Executive Forum it has become increasingly evident that we are in the middle of an electronic revolution which is changing business practice in a fundamental sense. New technologies have increased the weight of low transaction costs and total response capability in the international competitiveness equation. It is these two factors which will now largely determine who will be the winners and who the losers in the international marketplace.

In short, international business is becoming a whole new ‘ball game’. Not only are completely new business models emerging but the pressure is on existing business approaches to adjust to a new definition of international competitiveness – a definition based largely on e-competency.

The responsibility for developing a suitable strategic response lies not just with the individual business person, but with the national export strategy-maker as well. For it is here, in the area of e-competency, where decisions covering the big picture – the macro and the micro – must be made. It is here where decisions impacting on long-term national export performance and on the immediate commercial response must be taken. It is here where the public-private sector partnership must, as a consequence, be particularly strong and proactive.

And it is on this area that this year’s Executive Forum debate will focus.

Over the next three days, we intend to develop ideas on:

• HOW the developing and transition economy exporter should respond to the emerging business opportunities and practices of the digital economy;
• WHAT steps need to be taken by the national strategy-maker to create the environment within which the business sector can effectively compete; and
• WHY public-sector trade support organizations must adjust the type of service offered to the business sector; what these services should be and HOW they should be delivered.

My colleagues in the ITC directorate, a significant number of ITC technical staff and I will participate throughout the Forum. But it is you who will drive it. It is you who, through participation in the debate, discussion during lunch and dinner, and lakeside walks with other participants, will determine what is best practice for a strategic response to ensuring competitiveness in the digital economy.

And it is you who will tell us what you need from ITC in technical support activities in the area of e-competency.

I invite each national team to discuss with my colleagues and me its specific ideas on where it wishes ITC to target its future e-competency activities. In fact, the final session of this year’s Forum is devoted exclusively to the question "Where do we go from here?" I hope that each team will also take the opportunity to summarize what it intends to do in the follow-up to this debate.

As you can see, we are looking forward to a lively time over the next three days.

To inspire us all at the outset of the Forum, I am pleased that two of ITC’s best friends, the heads of its parent bodies, Messrs. Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD and Mike Moore, Director-General of WTO, have agreed to share their thoughts with us.

On Friday afternoon, we shall also have the honour of welcoming another special guest, Mr. David Syz, the Swiss Secretary of State for Economic Affairs.

I thank you for your attention and wish us all a fruitful Forum.

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