Panel 1: Shaping the future of supply chain resilience:
Global interdependence for goods and services remains a feature of the global economy but the disruptions wrought by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and its adverse impact on global trade have revealed weaknesses. Supply chains need to be reshaped, invested with resilience with complex and dynamic future scenarios. Building resilience is now the new priority. The world is looking for better more reliable supply chains that can better withstand future shocks.
There are winners and losers as supply chains are adapting and reformulating themselves. What have we learned? What changes are temporary and which ones are likely to persist into the future? What can we be doing about it? Our expert speakers will share what they’ve learned and what are the options available now
to shape the future of supply chain resilience.
SPEAKERS:
- Cesare Zingone, CEO, Zeta Group, Costa Rica
- Professor Gordon Shirley, CEO, Port Authority of Jamaica and Chairman of the Council, Jamaica
- Umberto de Pretto, Secretary General, International Road Transport Union (IRU), Switzerland
- John Ferguson, Global Practice Lead for New Globalization the Economist Impact, USA
- Shannon Fura, Founding Partner Page Fura, USA
- Paul Kent, Vice-President, Meg Consulting, USA
Panel 2: Charting the future of an inclusive e-commerce:
The pandemic has seen a massive acceleration in ecommerce. Seemingly every aspect of business was moved or accelerated towards a digital structure amid the pandemic. As online business trends continue to play a role in everyday B2B operations, we forecast B2B ecommerce site sales will reach nearly $1.77 trillion in 2022, a 12% increase from a year prior. Worldwide, estimates put ecommerce sales at $5 trillion in 2022 and $6 trillion by 2024.
As Internet penetration and accessibility increases globally, more people can benefit from most online services, including e-commerce (empowered by retail digitalization) which has become mainstream in people’s daily lives with profound benefits. Cross border e-commerce often faces varied challenges including trade policy, product pricing and logistics. This session will explore how supply chains need to adapt to support the growth of inclusive e-commerce.
SPEAKERS:
- Ricardo Trevino, Deputy Secretary General, World Customs Organization (WCO), Belgium
- Velma Ricketts Walker, Commissioner, Jamaica Customs Agency, Jamaica
- Walter Trezek, Chairperson, UPU Consultative Committee, Austria
- DeVere Forster, CEO, Dubai CommerCity, United Arab Emirates
- Martin Dovat, CEO, Zonamerica, Uruguay
- Bogolo Kenewendo, CEO, Kenewendo Advisory, Botswana
- Audley Deidrick, President and CEO, Airports Authority of Jamaica
Panel 3: Building a new generation of SDG / ESG entities:
As the world moves towards a new order of egalitarianism and green economy, business entities must strive to advance the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as follow Environmental, Social and Governance principles. Corporates and business entities long accustomed to traditional ways of doing business will have
to reorient their priorities, and to twin digitalization and ecological sustainability. Investors are keen to support sound ESG initiatives. Societies globally are demanding that business lives up to its SDG/ESG responsibilities, so how do businesses need to adapt and re-engineer their activities to meet this challenge?
The session will seek to explore the theme in more depth.
SPEAKERS:
- Courtney Fingar, Editor-in-Chief, Investment Monitor, United Kingdom
- James Zhan, Director, UNCTAD, Switzerland
- Pere Navarro i Morera, Special State, Delegate, Barcelona Free Zone, Spain
- Charito Plaza, Chief B/Gen PEZA, Philippines
- Shadi Banna, Founder and CEO, Potential, UAE
- Dr. Mohan Guruswamy, CKO, World FZO, UAE
- Ilham Khalil, Director, Tanger Free Zone, Morocco
Panel 4: Reforming the Global Tax System ?
Taxation and tax rates have been a vexatious issue for global trade and cross-border investment, especially for multinational organizations. Certainty and predictability are two key pillars on which a sound tax system should stand. Digitalization has added another dimension to the tax issue.
Key elements of the century-old tax system no longer serve the purpose in a globalized, digitalized 21st century economy. As part of OECD/G20 initiative, 130 countries representing over 90% of global GDP, joined in establishing a new framework for international tax reform.
SPEAKERS:
- James Zhan, Director, UNCTAD, Switzerland
- Emilio Pineda Ayerbe, Chief of the Fiscal Management Division, IDB, United States of America
- Martin Gustavo Ibarra Pardo, President, Araujo Ibarra International Trade Consultant, Columbia
- Pascal Saint-Adams, Director, OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, France
- Scott Hodge, President, Tax Foundation, USA
- Juan Carlos Hidalgo, Policy Analyst, Costa Rica
Panel 5: How ‘ecosystems of trust’ drive prosperity?
Trade is essential to economies efforts to create economic benefits and prosperity to all participants. The ‘network effect’ creates economies of scale for all participants where the value to each participant in the network grows as number of other participants in the same networks grow. Everybody is better off.
Ecosystems generate competitive advantage via trust. Above all, ecosystems in which trust continues to rise over time require lower levels of orchestration; each participant influences and is affected by the others, creating an ever-evolving ecosystem that can sustain itself in the long run.
Trust (“relational trust”) takes deliberate strategies, committed parties, efficient processes, transparency mechanisms and protection tools. How do we build ecosystems of trust and how do they drive prosperity will be discussed by an elite panel of experts.
SPEAKERS:
- Jacopo Dettoni, Editor, fDi Intelligence, Financial Times, United Kingdom
- Lars Karlsson, Global Head of Trade and Customs Consulting, Maersk, Sweden
- James Grogan, Senior Director, Fti Consulting, USA
- Amber Ruiz, Director General, Zonas Franca, Panama
- Bruno Delaye, President, Enterprise & Diplomatie, France
- Lars Kastrup, Global Head of Sales Maersk, Sweden
