In September
2000 the International Trade Centre, in cooperation with
the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco),
hosted in Montreux, Switzerland, its second Executive Forum on
National Export Strategies.
Over 20 national
teams, each comprising a senior public-sector planner and a leading
representative of the business world, participated in the Executive
Forum 2000 debate, which concentrated on the theme ‘Export
Development in the Digital Economy’. The purpose was to review the
implications for national export strategy of the new electronic age,
with emphasis on assessing the impact of e-trade on future export
performance. But the objectives were somewhat more ambitious. During
the Forum, each team was asked to analyse the implications of
e-trade for international competitiveness, and then to determine
what, in its opinion, would be the most suitable national response.
Our intention was not
merely to identify best practice. It was also to examine best
practice from the standpoint of its relevance for developing and
transition economies and to explore alternative solutions, when
appropriate. We gave priority to ensuring that participants had
opportunities to share views and opinions and to learn about other
countries’ experiences – both successes and failures – and to
building a network of senior public-sector decision-makers, business
leaders and e-trade specialists. Such a network would facilitate
experience sharing and support efforts to design and implement
national e-trade strategies long after the Montreux consultation.
The debate was
supported by a series of research papers contributed by each
national team and a number of e-commerce specialists, who donated
their time to participate in pre-Executive Forum consultations and
the Montreux event itself. We are extremely grateful to these
individuals and welcome their continued active participation in the
Executive Forum network. To enrich the discussion, both content-wise
and geographically, ITC also organized a series of e-discussions
that reached some 600 participants from 85 countries. These
e-discussions generated wide commentary on e-trade, its
opportunities and threats. Furthermore, they contributed enormously
to the refinement of ideas and the assessment of strategic options.
The conclusions of
Executive Forum 2000 are presented in this publication. As with the
book published on Executive Forum 1999 (Redefining Trade
Promotion: The Need for a Strategic Response), many of the
conclusions of Executive Forum 2000 only scratch the surface. We
believe, however, that they do point the export strategy-maker in
the right direction when it comes to launching a national effort to
achieve e-competency and e-trade capability. Certainly, this
publication establishes a good basis for continuing dialogue on
e-trade issues: dialogue between export strategy-makers and their
colleagues in other public-sector organizations, between export
strategy-makers and managers of trade support institutions, and
between strategy-makers and members of the business community. Both
ITC and seco will support this dialogue.
Through the Executive
Forum website, ITC will continue its analysis and dissemination of
best practice. It looks forward to working directly with partners in
developing and transition economies to implement specific
initiatives targeting national e-commerce/e-trade capability.
In this connection,
Executive Forum 2000 contributed significantly to the refinement and
finalization of ITC’s first technical assistance strategy for
supporting e-facilitated trade. A copy of this strategy is presented
in appendix I.
We encourage all
export strategy-makers, be they national planners, trade ministry
strategists, managers of trade support organizations or
representatives of business associations, to join the Executive
Forum network and to continue to participate in what is planned as
an active global programme of technical support in the area of
export development in the digital economy.
|
 |
J. Denis Bélisle
Executive Director
International Trade Centre
|
David Syz
Secretary of State
State Secretariat for Economic Affairs |
The book is available on-line in Pdf
format by clicking on the chapter headings listed below:
