06 Mar 2023
The 28th edition of The CII Partnership Summit is being held in partnership with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India from 13 – 15 March 2023.
The Summit will focus on how India’s growth story, its reform process and external engagement will help to rebalance the world and impart stability to growth processes. It will also capture global business ideas under the aegis of B20 India.
The Summit will focus on 10 tracks designed to correspond to key areas of interest for countries and businesses…
Inclusive Global Value Chains for Resilient Global Trade and Investment
The pandemic and other geopolitical developments have escalated disruptions to global trade and international supply chains, with new bottlenecks arising and intensifying production and efficiency losses. These have reinforced the need for strengthening Global Value Chains (GVCs) for building greater resilience against similar future economic shocks. At the same time, it has highlighted the role of decisive policymaking for enhancing inclusive growth and development.
In line with B20 priorities, this track will cover some key areas including the potential of services trade in enhancing productivity and trade performance, the role of disruptive technologies in transforming global trade and the future of multilateralism in driving efficient trade policies.
Financing Global Economic Recovery
Building financial resilience today has become an imperative for Governments around the world, as the changing global economic environment have heightened risks to economic recovery. With the Covid-19 pandemic triggering the largest economic crisis the world has witnessed in the past century, strengthening financial protection strategies and financial instruments is critical, for insulating the world from future economic shocks and disasters of similar magnitude.
Given the growing importance of emerging markets in the global economy and their strong linkages to trade and investments, financing growth in these markets will be essential for creating a stable and more resilient global financial system.
This track will deliberate on some of these issues including strengthening innovative finance for a stable, economic recovery.
G20
As large economies, the collaboration among G20 economies is critical at a time when the world is faced with many global challenges. Higher cooperation and global action from these economies would facilitate faster transition towards global economic recovery by laying strong foundations of inclusive and sustainable growth.
Enhancing competitiveness of nations as well as businesses has become critical for boosting growth and economic prospects of nations. The G20 can play a vital role in this regard by designing effective policies for promoting competitiveness. The focus must also be on exploring ways of strengthening a more constructive role for the G20’s in promoting global action and charting the future trajectory of global growth.
With India assuming the G20 Presidency in 2022, it will play a critical role in coordinating global policy and action in diverse areas and in securing future global inclusive growth and development. The track will discuss the possible policy suggestions in initiating and implementing global policy action at the G20 platform.
Future of Work, Skilling and Mobility
Rapid advances in technology and the recent pandemic have significantly changed the nature of work, bringing to the forefront the importance of skilling, reskilling and upskilling. Bridging the current skilling gap is critical for addressing current and future challenges. Industry will have a key role to play in supporting this transition and in building a productive workforce for the future.
The mapping of emerging and evolving job roles through technology and skill training, talent development, harmonization of skill standards, and fostering cross-border mobility of people are some critical areas of focus and will play an important role in how workplaces evolve over the years.
Energy, Climate Change and Resource Efficiency
Addressing climate change and sustainable management of resources are the foremost priorities during present times and is critical for a cleaner, healthier, and a sustainable future, as countries race to meet commitments under COP26. Urgent policy action that encompasses use of emissions-neutral technologies and a move towards a circular economy approach, are critical for meeting climate action goals, which need to be achieved with scale and speed.
The role of businesses and global cooperation will be essential for accelerating net-zero transitions and stepping up decarbonization efforts.
At the same time building resource efficient and resilient green efficient supply chains will be central for fostering the green transition. Global partnerships can help secure resource efficient supply chains that focus on promoting sustainable and green practices, and also raise awareness on such practices and their positive impact.
Financial Inclusion
Equitable access to finance remains a crucial priority for a sustained and inclusive economic recovery. Accelerating digital mechanisms for reaching the financially excluded, vulnerable sections of society and the use of cost-saving digital technologies are critical for fostering financial inclusion today.
Measures to promote financial literacy, facilitating access to affordable financial services and products through innovative use of digital technologies and the use of best digital practices will help improve financial access and inclusion and enhance economic growth.
Building innovative financial models is key for encouraging greater financing inclusion. The JAM trinity was a landmark initiative in India and globally, which provided relief to millions of people whose livelihoods were impacted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Building future service delivery mechanisms based on learnings from such successful initiatives is also vital for addressing current global challenges.
Digital Transformation
Technology today has a central role in making societies and businesses more resilient in the face of sudden shocks and future pandemics. Thus, greater focus on factors such as inclusive internet access and digital literacy are important, which will pave the way for digital transformation. Further, building an inclusive innovation and R&D system is critical for closing the digital divide and for accelerating the pace of digital transformation.
The track will also focus on the market for small and medium businesses (SMB), which has huge untapped potential and represents an enormous opportunity for doing business efficiently through integration of digital tools and technologies. The track will explore ways to enable digital transformation for these enterprises in an inclusive manner, which will help them to scale operations and contribute more to economic growth.
Technology, Innovation and R&D
Technology plays a pervasive role across almost every aspect of people’s lives today. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated many digital trends including digital payments, facilitating remote work, telehealth etc. Thus, digital technologies today have become a key driver of sustainable growth and development, with advanced and emerging technology trends impacting long-run economic prospects of a nation.
With technology advances taking a huge leap over the past few years, focus on disruptive innovation is not only important for facilitating business growth, but also crucial for business survival.
The role of technology partnerships is also an emerging area of focus today, as businesses are seeking greater growth opportunities, exploring new markets and collaborating on new products and services through such partnerships. Under this track, experts will present their perspectives across some of these areas.
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) in Business
Climate change and environmental concerns have raised the importance of responsible conduct by businesses and the need for mandating due diligence and climate legislation. This has led to an increasing focus of ESG in business.
Supporting the adoption of ESG values in corporates and identifying solutions to ensure ESG compliance is important for enhancing greater transparency.
Businesses around the world are cognizant of the importance of incorporating ESG practices in building resilient and sustainable global value chains. Working together and collaborating on building such GVCs will benefit industries globally.
Another key area is sustainable finance, that encompasses integrating ESG principles into investment and business decisions. This is crucial for building a sustainable future by minimizing the financial risks of climate change.
This track will focus on some of these emerging themes and the way forward for ESG in businesses.
African Economic Integration
For bolstering the productivity of its economies, the African countries have embarked upon an ambitious journey to deepen economic integration, which is expected to promote economic dynamism among the member states.
International cooperation would be critical in creating an enabling environment for growth and development in the African continent. In keeping with the overall B20 priorities, the role of global businesses will be key in facilitating international partnerships and promoting greater dialogue in areas including challenges to African economic integration, promoting India-Africa trade integration; enhancing physical and digital connectivity across the African nations and facilitating investments to build regional production networks.
Exploring ways to facilitate African economic industrialization by investing in information and communication technology (ICT), digital technologies and fostering job creation are also critical areas in this regard.
Conclusion
With a wide-ranging spectrum of discussions under the above tracks, The CII Partnership Summit 2023 sets the pace for intensifying India’s external orientation at a critical time when it is leading the G20 group of nations. Strengthening partnerships at a global level has never before been so urgent for the global economy and India, the 5th largest economy in the world, assumes a central role in this endeavor. With industry as a key player in the growth mission, its partnerships will define the trends for the world’s future trajectory.
Participate in the CII Partnership Summit 2021 to get expert insights on the way ahead for a better and brighter future.
Register now: https://bit.ly/3jVYeTD