101/ Developing country participation critical to ISO’s future
By Katie Bird on 18 September 2019
The participation of developing countries was highlighted as key in ensuring ISO can continue to deliver solutions into the future, at today’s meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, as part of the ISO Week 2019.
“This week, we have a unique opportunity to contribute to the process of developing the ISO Strategy 2030,” explained Lena Dargham, Chair of the Committee on developing country matters (DEVCO).
“I encourage you to use this opportunity and to contribute to this discussion. It will have a significant impact on us as developing countries, and we need to ensure our voice is heard,” she added.
The meeting is part of a series of events occurring this week including the ISO General Assembly, where the focus is on defining the future strategy for the organization.
Power shifts
Speakers highlighted the significant changes occurring in the world today, many of which will impact developing countries in particular. For instance, we are seeing significant shifts in global economic power that need to be considered when charting the future of an organization such as ISO, underlined Herman Warren, Network Director for Africa at The Economist.
Looking back to 1843 when The Economist was first published, the global economy was dominated by the United Kingdom, Germany and France, he said. The 20th century saw the additional rise of the United States and Japan. “Now we see that the centre of economic gravity in the world is shifting east. The two largest economies today are the United States and China but, by the end of the century, we expect to see China as the largest economy, followed by the US and then India.”
Warren also argued that the trade tensions we are currently witnessing linked to technology and related intellectual property may result in a bifurcation of supply chains. “This decoupling raises issues from a standards perspective where countries and businesses might need to make a choice as to who they work with,” he said.
For Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, Director, Trade, Investment and Innovation at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), “trade growth up until now has not been sustainable and we need to work together to ensure it benefits all actors, including small communities”.
It’s important for developing countries to participate in global value chains, echoed William Gain, Global Product Specialist for Trade Facilitation and Border Management at the World Bank Group, but additional policy choices and drivers around economic development are needed to ensure that benefits are sustained in the long term and shared equally.
Working together
Addressing these challenges to empower developing countries, and level the playing ground cannot be done in isolation. Gain underlined the importance of global collaboration: “International cooperation between organizations such as ISO, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Customs Organization (WCO) is critical. The global approach has to be the answer.”
The power of collective action was also highlighted by ISO President John Walter in his opening speech. “We must move forward collectively to achieve our common vision and goals, and to deliver solutions to the world. More than ever, we need each other,” he said.
“ISO members have long cooperated and collaborated in the creation of International Standards and solutions. This is needed even more today than ever before. Together, we can achieve much more in this time of uncertainty,” he concluded.
Source: iso.org
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267