Agenda

OVERVIEW

Global trade faces significant threats: growing uncertainty and increased protectionism could unravel decades of positive integration and connectivity. Amid these concerns, technological innovation provides hope and a renewed opportunity for strategic growth through trade.

The emergence of ‘digital trade’, predicated on innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence, internet-of-things, fintech platforms and blockchain, could bring considerable benefits….

Enhanced transparency, improved trade flows and increased efficiency across complex global networks and supply chains are just a few of the purported upsides. But adoption of trade-technologies has been slow; the magnitude of the holistic shift required across industries and geographies means that companies, governments and those with vested interests in a healthy global-trade landscape must act quickly or risk losing out.

Against this backdrop, this year’s Symposium, will gather corporate leaders, financiers, technologists, regulators and leading thinkers across the global trade landscape to debate the opportunity presented by digital trade in creating a roadmap for the future. Sessions will review the state of digital trade today, debate the value of emerging technologies, provide practical solutions to real-life problems, and enable decision-makers to effect positive change – for their businesses, industries, economies and societies.

The Symposium will address the following and in doing so, provide much-needed insight.

Digital trade in a new world order: What is the digital trade vision and where can it lead us? As global trade faces up to increasing macroeconomic, geopolitical and social challenges, there is a growing need for technology to help deliver sustainable, inclusive and fair trade.

Digital trade realities: We shine a spotlight on digital trade, investigating its potential and the reality of progress today. What must regulators, business leaders and trade practitioners know about these realities along with the latest trends and advances in the technologies that underpin them? What are the regional initiatives and how is the global trade landscape evolving because of it?

Foundations for progress: Looking to the future, we will envision a digital trade environment and examine the practical implications for companies and governments. How can the trade ecosystem collaborate and leverage the digital opportunity to steer economies through an unpredictable future? What should corporates, finance firms and other key players do now to embrace the opportunities? Will digitalisation accelerate sustainability and make a positive impact on open and inclusive trade?

The global trade community needs to co-operate to achieve the ‘promised’ digital trade benefits in today’s uncertain world.

8.00 am

Registration

9.00 am

Welcome remarks from Finastra

9.10 am

Chair’s opening remarks

Tectonic shifts

As global trade faces up to increasing macroeconomic, geopolitical and social challenges there is a growing need for technology to help deliver sustainable, inclusive and fair trade. What is the digital trade vision and where can it lead us?

9.15 am

Keynote interview: The new world order

Trade as we’ve known it is over. In this opening keynote we look at the fundamental forces that have been reshaping the world of trade, including digital technologies, and determine the implications for firms, countries and the global economy.

What are the practical implications of decoupling on global trade flows, access to China and other markets, and the shape of global supply chains? How can we take a holistic, cross-sectoral approach to tackling growing isolationism and protectionism? And could a bi-polar world provide opportunities, alongside well-noted risks?

9.45 am

Panel discussion: The potential of (digital) trade

What potential does digital trade have to reshape the world, and what role could it play in fostering a more open global trade environment?

This session provides detailed insight into the latest trade technologies – from financial innovations to enhance trade financing and flows, to tracking technology to improve visibility. Speakers will then debate whether, amid current bumps in the road, digital trade can provide some stability and enable the healthy, long-term growth of global trade.

10.30 am

Leading the way

In an overly-politicised global trade landscape, which countries, policy makers, innovators and technologists are leading the way in fostering digital trade? How are global and regional players developing digital trade standards and broader regulations to enable sustainable trade? And which countries can claim to be leading the way in adopting innovative principles and policies to mitigate disruption and enable long-term growth?

10.50 am

Coffee break

Digital trade realities

We shine a spotlight on digital trade, investigating its potential, its challenges and the reality of progress to date. What must regulators, business leaders and trade practitioners know about it, what are the latest trends and advances in the technologies that underpin it, what are the regional initiatives and how is the global trade landscape evolving because of it?

11.30 am

Voices from the future – technology perspectives

How is digital trade reshaping global supply chains and affecting the way companies do business and serve the interests of their communities and customers? Is digitalisation making trade more inclusive and sustainable?

The ‘voices from the future’ sessions will welcome speakers from startups and SMEs, regional and global thought leaders, influencers and innovators to present their cutting-edge ideas which aim to reshape the nature of trade using new technologies and business models to address age-old challenges. Each session will begin with a brief case study, followed by a moderated interview and audience Q&A.

11.50 am

Voices from the future #2 – Regional perspectives

12.10 pm

Voices from the future #3 – Sector perspectives

12.30 pm

Roundtable discussions: Opening up

In this segment, delegates will participate in interactive, moderated table discussions. Each table will consist of a mix of corporate executives, technologists and consultants, and the segment will be broken into three parts. First, they will work collectively to identify critical problems they face. The second part will see them imagine or identify potential solutions – both digital and non-digital – and describe the actions they must take to steer their businesses, industries and the global economy in that direction. Later in the programme, a selection of table moderators will share their takeaways with the audience.

Foundations for progress

We will cast an eye to the future, envisioning a well-functioning digital trade environment and examining the practical implications for companies and governments.

2.30 pm

The World In…2030: A thriving trade landscape

How must businesses, regulators and international bodies (such as the WTO) collaborate to foster a more robust, sustainable trade environment, and leverage the promise and benefits that digital trade can bring? What foundations must be laid today to minimise disruption and protect economies and industries from threats to business continuity?

In this session, we invite speakers from across the trade ecosystem – from suppliers, retailers, regulators, financiers and trade bodies – to outline how they plan to turn critical learnings from the day’s sessions into tangible outcomes for their respective organisations. What are the roles of each stakeholder in taking the discussion forward, and what will they do differently?

3.20 pm

Keynote interview

3.50 pm

Oxford-style debate: Digital trade will save the world

Can digital trade be the tonic to trade ills? This debate will pit advocates for digital trade against the cynics to make the case.

4.40 pm