Openness to trade and investment is critical, says Owen
British High Commissioner to Singapore Kara Owen has reaffirmed the UK government’s support for the priorities that have been put out by India under its G20 Presidency.
The envoy said that private sector support and inputs are absolutely critical for G20 proposals to make any real impact.
“Openness to trade and investment is critical for our long-term prosperity,” Owen said at the International Outreach Forum of B20 India organised in Singapore on ‘Resilient Supply Chains for Trade and Connectivity’ theme.
Owen informed that the UK has developed a supply chain resilience framework that sets out five areas of priority. These are diversification, stockpiling and surge capacity, onshoring, demand management and international partnerships.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as the B20 India Secretariat organised the Forum which deliberated on the next steps for resilient supply chains and discussed how multilateral platforms such as B20 can help to reorganise supply chains with economic efficiency.
Eduardo Pedrosa, Secretary General, Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) International Secretariat said, “Digitising supply chain management is the most important measure to make supply chain resilience. But even though private investment in the same has doubled, there still exists some resistance”.
Dr Amitendu Palit, Member, B20 India Task Force on Inclusive GVCs for Resilient Global Trade and Investment and Senior Research Fellow and Research Lead (Trade and Economics), Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, said that one of the key priority areas of B20 India is on Inclusive GVCs for Resilient Global Trade and Investment.
“Under this priority area, the engagement is focusing on four themes namely, Building Resilient and Sustainable Global Value Chains; Technology and Trade; Advancing Services Trade and finally, Inclusive Trade”, stated Dr Palit.
Sumanta Chaudhuri, Principal Adviser – International Trade Policy, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), noted, “Building resilient and sustainable global value chains has never been more important. The lost GDP due to supply chain disruptions is alarming and global coordination is vital for crisis mitigation.” fiinews.com
