UNIDO and IfW Kiel: Globalization at the Crossroads (FGI2020)

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.

· 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?
Those are some of the key questions to be discussed at the virtual event organised by UNIDO in cooperation with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the Kiel Centre for Globalization. The event is part of UNIDO-IfW Kiel’s Forum on Globalization and Industrialization (FGI), which provides a multilateral platform to discuss the opportunities and challenges for industrialization as a result of countries’ greater participation in global trade and investment flows.

About the Forum on Globalization and Industrialization:
For the past few years, the Forum has brought together policymakers, international organizations, academia and private sector. The 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, UNIDO’s FGI is aiming to address the challenges and opportunities of globalization and industrialization, especially in the current COVID-19 crisis.