Public Forum Trade 2030: opening debate

this is me as a baby with the toy my aunt sent me from Spain there are objects that mark moments in our lives when I was seven it was a yo-yo I did not realize it had been made thousands of miles away I also remember my first electronic game I was about 10 when I got it I took it everywhere with me then a few years later I got a Walkman from Japan everybody had one at my first car it was an American model made in Germany it gave me so much freedom I could go anywhere this object may not mean anything to you it came from Chile and helped me start my company it became a family business this laptop helped to sell all over the world working from home because a baby was on the way when I look back on all these objects these moments trade was always part of the story it was evolving as I was growing now I see her growing up what is her future going to look like I'll trade shaper life [Music] will she pay using blockchain [Music] will a drone deliver her products or will she print them herself [Music] how old technology changed the way we train [Music] how about her we'll trade between this is nice story how about the Kurds how about theirs [Music] well good morning good morning everyone and welcome to the WTO public forum if you cannot hear me put the phones there you go so where are the phones please you have it on the desk and there should be a leaflet telling you which channel to choose for your preferred language we don't have all of them but we have a few okay all right so I'm Xavier Acevedo director-general of the WTO I'm your host today thank you all for joining us and with our theme this year which is trade 2030 we're inviting you to raise your eyes from the trade that we have today and look into the future what will trade look like in 2030 how can we shape this kind of trade to fit our priorities that's another question how can we make it more sustainable how can we make it more inclusive are we ready for the changes that lie ahead now these are the issues that we'll be discussing this week we will all know about much more than we do now we certainly know that the world is changing it is happening at an unprecedented rate new technologies are emerging environmental risks are growing and this is challenging the way that we think about trade if the proper synergies are in place particularly regarding public policies so if we have the right public policies in place by 2030 the technological revolution could help to fuel additional trade so that's on top of whatever we are expecting today so with those new technologies additional trade growth of around 30 percentage points between now and 2030 that is huge but that is something that is possible if we do the right thing if we take the right actions more and more trade will be happening through digital platforms new ways of delivering products will come on stream new kinds of services will be created so we have to ask is a global trading system that we have today equipped for that new environment and I believe that the fundamental principles apply and they are enshrined in the WTO agreements for example the importance of clear rules openness cooperation non-discrimination but the question is is this enough those basic principles are they enough we're seeing new advances making our lives change every day in so many different fields in AI artificial intelligence in green technology 3d printing robotics quantum computing and blockchain or distributed Ledger's in any system where you have say a constitution or a basic text a founding legal text if it is not regularly updated you will see growing gaps between those basic principles that are in the text and the evolution of habits behaviors and even ethical values so more often than not it is the courts that step in to fill the gaps creating jurisprudence for example but this route it may be faster but it does not necessarily reflect the wishes and the priorities of everybody that it effects so this is a key question do we want to leave the task of filling the gaps filling the blanks to the court or to unilateral action or do we want to sit down and fill the blanks together the world is changing before our eyes and although we cannot stop this evolution so let's give this up you're not going to stop new technologies we're not going to stop this evolution but we can shape it and in fact I believe we have to shape it if we do not it is inevitable that many will be left behind it will create new social problems and sources of unease and unrest for example there was a recent report from the World Economic Forum which found that by 2025 for the first time in history machines will perform more work tasks than humans and they found that technology could wipe out 75 million jobs over the next four years for years 75 million jobs but at the same time it could create 133 million new jobs now this is a phenomenal opportunity but it can only be seized with immediate positive action to rescale workers and support their transition into these new jobs and that is because the worker that loses his or her job in manufacturing for example will not be ready to occupy a position that has opened in a more dynamic sector of the economy that kind of lesson applies across the board technological change could create new problems it could increase the power of higher firms at the expense of the smaller companies it could create new inequalities for example between digitally advanced economies and those that are lagging behind or it could help to build the future that we want to see helping smaller players and distributing the benefits of trade and economic growth more widely in fact this is what the sustainable development goals are all about world leaders came together to set those goals precisely to shape the future and create a better world by 2030 we have a set path towards a better global trade by 2030 trade that is even more sustainable and inclusive and which is responsive to emerging challenges and in doing this in setting this path I don't think that we can wait until we understand all of the elements of technological change and precisely how they are going to evolve because this is never going to happen we can't put progress on hold until we're ready we have to start you have to start talking now we have to get involved and that's what we'll be debating here at the public forum what the future will look like and how we can work together to make sure that it works for everyone now this year's event is bigger than ever in fact since 2012 the attendance and the number of events of sessions have more than doubled so that's in just six years over the next three days we'll welcome over two-and-a-half thousand attendees and hold one hundred and twelve events we actually received applications to host a remarkable 237 events this year we could only accommodate 112 and the problem is we don't have any more rooms though we're done I'm afraid that we cannot add more rooms in the future but I think we can add more time so right now we are considering extending the event to a fourth day that would allow us to accommodate more requests so it's great that we're seeing such an overwhelming response it means that we are on the right track and we are raising at the right issues so I think it's going to be a great week and to kick off the conversation we have gathered a truly fantastic panel I am very pleased to welcome from another international organization Eric zou Heim executive director of UN Environment and United Nations under secretary general eric has an extensive career focusing on Environment and development issues and I'm pleased to say that we're joining forces forces to find innovative ways to strengthen our economies and the environment at the same time I'm also pleased to welcome Jack Ma he dispenses introduction but I will introduce anyway Jack is the founder and executive chairman of the Alibaba Group and surely one of the most remarkable business leaders and visionaries of our time jack has been named a sustainable development goal advocate by the United Nations and Jack and I have been working closely together in recent years soon rich and inform the growing debate on e-commerce next we have Laura Baron swoop the CEO and co-founder of shippo which she has built into a leading multi carrier shipping platform she is also one of the Forbes 30 under 30 so that's pretty impressive and we're talking about the future today I look forward to hearing Laura's perspective as a young business leader Thank You Laura next we have another young business leader soon the Kehinde who is the co-founder of Lydia Lydia is a digital platform designed to help business owners access financing Tunde is quite prolific a quite prolific entrepreneur having also co-founded Africa career Express a less mild delivery company and Junia an e-commerce platform both of which are leaders in their field in Nigeria and finally we have christine bliss the president of the u.s. coalition of services industries christine is well known to many of us as she is a former assistant US Trade Representative and trade negotiator both here in the WTO and for various u.s. free trade agreements she's a noted expert on trade issues in particular particularly services so that's our pan were truly privileged to have them here today this is going to be a truly global debate we're opening up the conversation to those who couldn't join us today so who are not in the room we are webcasting this session so I should say a special welcome to everyone watching us around the world when it comes to the moment for the panel to take questions we will be receiving them from you here in the room and from outside if you have twitter or facebook in the interest of maximizing the time we have and to allow for more interaction with those viewing online we would ask those in the room to follow the instructions on the leaflet on your desk if you want to ask questions it explains how to do that either through the slider app or with pen and paper that's very traditional if you prefer to do it the old-fashioned way then please pass your questions the slip to one of the ushers will be in the back of the room and when you submit your question I would ask you to please specify who you are and where you're from once you've sent them in I will receive your questions here on my tablet so I will ask as many as I can I'm sure I won't be able to do everything but I'll try to cover as much ground as possible so that's enough for housekeeping we have like I said a fantastic panel let's give them a chance to address you so I'll sit right there so I'll be moderating and hopefully not speaking too much I already did my piece so let me start with Eric with is another international organization sitting here with us we are committed Eric as you know to finding ways to ensure that trade in efforts to address environmental problems complement one another and they can actually have synergies that will lead to a more sustainable future a better future particularly for 2030 and beyond so the question that I would put to you is how how do you think from the environmental perspective that trade can can help here how can trade be a positive factor now you know we now speak from here that's my podium yeah thank you how excited I am with this partnership it's inverted organization and you know vironment because in the past quite often people saw environment and traders may be competing stuff I see completely differently this is absolutely integrated and the more and better we do trade the better it would be for the environment why is that well environment depends on the maximum best resource efficiency the better use of resources the methods for the environment and for Mother Earth the better we do trade across the better we use our resources and also very practical men look to the enormous success I've had over the last few years the biggest success of all is the following last year we had more new electricity coming into the global grid from solar alone that from oil and gas from coal and from nuclear combined so could that'll happen with our trade no of it we know it shouldn't half of this half of that for China alone but the Chinese patents may have started in California or in Germany but the enormous market or China and in their ticket to such a scale that this is now that's that coal cannot compete on price with kasoori which solar can compete with : price everywhere in the world that's a change and again do them impossible without trades let me take you to one of my favorites as we this name is Hans Rosling he just died but he before he died did he wrote a book which is called fact illness in that book he says that one big question he has people all over the world the last 15 years has global poverty doubled or has global poverty Haupt or is global poverty the same I guess all of you know the answer the answer is global poverty has soft but nearly everyone else answered exactly the opposite and Hans Rosling goes around everyone believed that globalport has doubled what the soft and this is absolutely essential because if you don't celebrate the progress we won't learn from it and do better there has been fantastic progress in the world in the last last 15 years life expectancy just eclis increasing global poverty is drastically decreasing nearly all children in the world are vaccinated against nearly all diseases and on the environment in many areas we are doing much better than in the past for instance protecting the enormous danger though also the hole in the ozone layer but the point is if you know what it did bill in the past we can do more of that in the future and that is linking trade and environment and let me give you a challenge it's time to start fighting the environment community and the trade community are under pressure and challenged we need to fight back and we cannot fight hate with more hate we can only fight hate with love we cannot fight ignorant with more ignorant we can only fight ignorant with facts and we cannot fight apathy with pessimism only with optimism but this package of low optimism of facts will our time carry the day and will do better both for the environment and for trade and we'll do it together and finally what's kind of my main message basically everywhere in the world let's look for the triple VinSolutions all those solutions is a very good for the economy bringing people of the poverty creating jobs for the economic growth the same time very good for people providing better health uplifting of the individuals I am very good from Mother Earth and for the environment at the same time and the good news we have not any number of these policies and we should to put them front and center of a conversation it may have been wrong that at the time of the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom and later in the United States and Europe and maybe even later than that that you needed to start having economic growth and then later taking care of the environment it's not the case and the longer just see examples at the end if we move from coal into solar which we are not doing at high speed at the planet where it's creating many more jobs not fewer jobs are five times more jobs in United States of America and solar learning cold some politicians speak otherwise but they're simply ignorant that's adding to that and many more jobs for women in the solar industry if you move in that direction adding a course solar is fantastic for our health we don't breathe polluted air we live longer we avoid and the number that's coming from pollution and adding to that obviously is very good for our environment if it make the swap from coal into solar try an icing the lead of that swap but many others are following we want to have free cover later nations like Rwanda and Botswana are moving into ecotourism again creating any number of jobs in a healthy good people way for people but protecting nature better because if you move into ecotourism well you gain more income which can do better conservation and then you get more income again the pump the pump a population china is saying increasing the tiger population in this increasing thanks to this in Africa we see like the gorilla population Rhonda drastically increasing because of these combinational ecotourism via trade environment and finally plastics Prime Minister in their modest made maybe the most brave of all promises this year in politics he said vienen devil face out one news plastic but 2020 to think of how a big that that brave proposal is but again yes for sure is fantastic from of the earth it will save any number of whales and sea birds and turtles which is very good the health of the Indians because practically also carrying and the number of diseases when it's spread out in cities but again it's also creating in the number of jobs because you can then turn earnt into the alternatives there's a number of jobs to be had in the waste management in the new technologies which will come so again a triple VIN solution so my spoken too long now but look look into in every area of policy to avoid the ignorance and fact lessness of some politicians into this triple VIN future where we set the policies is a fantastic for the environment fantastic for jobs on the economy and fantastic for the health and uplifting of people with the same policies thank you that's a very that's a very clear vision about a critical issue for Humanity frankly so thank you for that well go deeper into that and now we move to the private sector which for us is very important this is what the forum is all about it's about talking to non-governmental institutions people and I think Jack if you don't mind I'll start with you vision and Jack Ma are words that go together that's your history your history was as an English teacher if I'm not mistaken meeting in your apartment with a few people looking at the technology that you had before you you had a vision about the future and you said this is doable let's go even though all the odds were against you now 2030 what is your vision for 2030 for trade in 2030 is that going to be much different from what it is today and if so how do you get ready for that what how do we make it the vision that we want for 2030 that you want inviting for this great session I think I totally agree with Eric's discussion about let's stop fight stop confrontation the trade and green so today I would say less stop worried about the future 1994 I was invited to attend a fallen in Beijing discussing about the Internet of the future about 20 people joined and everybody was talking about the Internet is going to destroy the society we should do this do this to regulate to control it so almost 24 years passed find out the things we worried never came out the things we did not worried or over so you may not have the solutions but young people have solutions you don't have the solution today but we have a solution tomorrow have confidence in ourself and have confidence in the future have confidence in the young people so the trading we cannot say when we talk about the future right some people have a vision but not everybody believing that the things what they want but we know what the things we don't want right so for sure that 2030 the trade will be different but for sure there will be more trade that time the IT is to support 20% of the business but the data technology ET support 80% of the business to be successful 300 years ago only few Kings they make benefit from the globalization 30 year in the past the 30 years 60,000 big companies who believe in globalization they benefit from the globalization next Sudhir's i think 80% of the business small business were benefit from e-commerce were bent from globalization so for sure that next to 30 years it is inclusive years for the globalization and trade ecommerce today we say yeah guys the ecommerce we're tradition of business year 2030 more than 85% of the business will be ecommerce so you like it or you don't like you have to be e 99% of the the trade Affairs will be online only less than 1% of the trade will be the offline and most of the visit trade business today we see a yesterday we see all containers 20 30 most of the the trade formality is packages not containers the business we see today is b2c year 2030 business will see to be consumer to business today we see mating China made in America I made this whistle and a Mary Geneva 20 30 will see mating internet so today all the business I love to be big business I'm sure in 2030 you want to be small business because you have to be flexible and 80% of the business at time a small business and 80% of small business at that time have to be globalized if you're not globalized your debt so manufacturing and service industry should be combined together manufacturing will not be created jobs because most of the jobs on the manufacturer will be created by a I and robots service industry is going to be the area that create a lot of jobs lots of the century will we like to be skilled to be standardization and this century we need personalization customization so all these things will fundamentally change the way we do trade but for sure that a lot of people most of the business were benefited from the trade and will create much more jobs than we expected and I think what we are helping the technology and helping is enable the small business every individual every gross to reach the market to reach the money to reach the logistic to reach the technology and rich the training all these things are happening stop fighting stop immigrants you a promoter said Roberto said that we cannot stop technology only thing we do is to embrace it when you are fighting against the technology when you're fighting this trade revolution you are fighting among yourself you're losing the future so the best thing to Bill it to welcome the future to be successful in the future is to embrace it change yourself but don't change the technology thank you well thank you that's a very powerful message I hope people are listening Laura now it's your turn and I hope our trade facilitation agreement is helping your business as well you're shipping with different carriers platforms from your ecommerce store but Jack just mentioned I myself mentioned that the future also needs to be more inclusive it has to be an open door for the smaller players who are now out of the market they have to benefit from all this but big companies in general they have advantages for example in the shipping business they shaped in bulk so they fill containers and that of course is kind of scale lowers costs makes them more competitive so how can this small company how can small players be competitive in this situation and you have a I think a pretty good experience with this really excited to be here I'll start by telling you a little bit more about my stories that people understand where I'm coming from so I'm originally from Germany half German half Taiwanese I moved to the US roughly five years ago for us to work at a fin tech startup and then at that fin tech startup as trying to build a business on this side just like for fun have a weekend project and building that side business I wanted to start an e-commerce store so there are a bunch of existing technologies out there that you can leverage to start an e-commerce store I think that's the interesting part today no e-commerce store needs to start from scratch you can use existing technologies like Shopify like Magento like Alibaba you can use stripe PayPal for payments you can piece all these different tools together to start an online store and that really allows the e-commerce merchants to focus on what they're best at which is creating a product and creating a really good customer experience so I was experimenting with that and I started my online store and I realized for shipping it's actually a lot more complicated than I realized before starting that business either you have to physically walk to a postal store or to the FedEx UPS location or you have to use with use technologies that are rather like old and outdated a little clunky like most shipping providers are in tech companies that's not what they're focused on so with that in mind and realizing that shipping is a pain point not just for me but for every single ecommerce store out there we decided to build a business on that and I think that's the other interesting thing like you there are a bunch of different problems that no individual ecommerce store needs to solve by themself any more companies are automating that for them and shipping is a pain point that's across the board for every single ecommerce store out there so we decided to focus on that shipping problem and by now we should roughly seventy million packages in the US but also worldwide and the learnings from shipping these 70 million packages is really that it's easier than ever to start an online store so more people are starting online businesses you don't have to have a physical retail location anymore starting an online business is very asset low you don't need to have any engineers in-house because you're just using the existing technologies you can piece them together and then people can really focus on focus on what they're best at which is making creative and beautiful products taking care of the customers building emotional connections with the customers and being in touch with with the trends that are going on out there and what we've seen is that direct to consumer brands are on the rise so more people are no longer selling through channels no longer placing their products into a big a big retail chain they're selling directly from their warehouse from their online location to the end customer and that all needs to be shipped and it does not only need to be shipped in the country it also needs to be shipped internationally the other upside of e-commerce is that ecommerce does not see any geographical boundaries so when you see as an item that you like online you don't know if it's located in Switzerland in the US and China you just want to click buy and you want to be able to get it to your home and you're you're expecting like a turnaround time that is very like low you expect it to be there within a week not many weeks you expect transparency along the supply chain you want tracking to be available you want returns to be seamless so all of that all these customer expectations are really high and in in America we see roughly 5% of SMBs shipping internationally on our platform we're seeing 27% of SMBs shipping internationally so what I'm saying is people have been talking about we cannot stop technology like I don't want to stop technology like this is this is amazing I think people are using leveraging technologies to be able to be more creative to be able to for more human connections to be able to just make the world a smaller place and the power is really in the hands of the consumer these days consumer expectations are a lot higher partially to go back to your question because retail giants like Amazon have shaped consumer expectations to be free and fast shipping in in America today shipping free shipping is standard these days and at the same time like SMBs are now able to tap into other technologies that give them access to scale both in terms of tech resources and also in terms of volume all right that's today you've been trying very hard to make finance available for small companies particularly in emerging economies developing countries and I know it's tough I know it's tough because in my own work I have done a lot of research with my team here and what we found is that financing is one of the top three obstacles to export big companies they finance you know 80% of global trade is financed somehow but for the small companies that finance is not available there is a huge shortfall of financing so I wanted to hear from you how can technology change that how do we improve the access to financing to small players is their way of turning this around how can we maximize that what is your experience there sure no thanks for for having me I guess first I'll start by setting some context so folks understand about our business so we are Lydia do small business financing within one day so the idea is you applied today you have money or account by tomorrow and the idea came to us because as was mentioned earlier so we founded a large e-commerce business called jamia and then also another large logistics business called ace and we kept seeing the same pattern that all our small business customers would struggle to scale because they lacked consistent access to capital so I want to buy more inventory I want to invest my working capital I want to build my team well where do I turn to get that financing and the reality is most banks around the world struggle truly serve small businesses and we said look there's so much data around these businesses why can't we use technology to organize this data and make it easy to make a smart fast lending decision within one day and that's how Lydia was born so in the last one year we've now had a hundred thousand businesses sign up for a Lydia loan we've raised about ten million dollars to go after its opportunity and we're seeing a couple of interesting things the power of our model is we allow folks not just to get capital within one day but also you're building risk-adjusted pricing and credit scoring tailored to the small business because what happens typically is for me to get a loan as a small business customer I have to provide collateral or audited financials most more businesses in frontier markets in particular don't have these things but when you can use data and technology not only are you able to get them the capital you're also able to reward good behavior so there's now an incentive to say look if I am a good actor and I pay my bills on time I grow my business not only will I get good pricing I'll also get a credit score that helps me and when it comes to trade it's very practical for a couple of reasons so we are a sector agnostic we have done now financings in wool our money in health care in consumer goods but when you come into international trade and export there are a few things that are credit helps to do so one is today a lot of commodities particular from Africa there's a lot of demand so everything from cashew to Coco around the world but your buyer might want a large volume of goods and most of our small business customers won't have the capital to meet that demand where we common is to say look without having to put up any physical collateral we're now able to give you the financing you need to actually meet the demands of your off-taker and when you think about sustainable development goals around look job creation equality the fact that you can now provide the financing they need to meet those buyers demand greatly opens up markets for these small businesses that weren't there before and the second powerful thing is once you've now built credit score in which we're building for our customers typically if you are interacting with a buyer overseas and you say look I want to buy X amount of goods I'm from Nigeria the first question is that sounds fantastic send me the foreign currency and for most small businesses unfortunately they don't have that capital up front to buy cash for these goods but once you've built a credit score through Lidia what you can say is look I am triple-a on this platform that not allow me to get 30 days 60 days 90 days worth of credit from you and you can imagine the impact I was on a small business but now I can bring my goods into a country I can sell make some income and now use that to pay off my debt owes so the power model is not just getting capital in terms of small businesses but also giving them the credit scoring and pricing area allows them to open up their markets and particularly when you think in a frontier markets context where there's such a lack of trust and a perceived high risk the power of technology and data is being able to bridge these gaps to say look just because you're an African business or your business in Latin America and a business in Asia doesn't make you a bad actor and what data is going to do is going to bring down these walls and allow as Laura mentioned these global supply chains say look maybe I can source the best goods from Africa or from China or from other parts of the world that I was not aware of before and because of the transparency technology brings I can't do it in a way that doesn't affect my business and if I step back and think about what really helped us to start this business I mean I'm the son of entrepreneurs my parents use small businesses to put us through school and I saw how difficult it is in a frontier market where you have lack of access to infrastructure to power to finance and how difficult it is to build your business and the power of Lidia now is the next generation around the world doesn't matter where you are Africa and Beyond you can now say look as long as I'm a good actor and I have data to show I am a good actor I can have it easier to launch and scale my business and that's what Lydia is doing getting credit to small businesses and helping good actors open the world to their businesses thank you after that I'll have a conversation with you about regulations and how they play a part in allowing Lydia and companies like Lydia to act as as the kind of financing agency that it has been doing but we'll get to that down the road Christine it's your turn and you now with the coalition of services have been working a lot with the service providers who are changing very quickly with technologies and the new services are appearing out there so what do you think would be the key trends in technology that will transform services by 2030 I think it's off I think it's all right thanks very much for the opportunity to participate in this very distinguished panel and I want to start my remarks just by saying I on the head of an association of services companies but that's a very large umbrella and one of our missions is to really make services better understood so if you'll indulge me just a couple of of general comments in terms of the services sector every comment that we've heard today is in some way connected or built on a services activity from the comments about environment and sustainable development environmental services and allowing them to be freely provided across borders is a critical services piece the discussion of the growth of the internet internet businesses the transformation into the online marketplace fundamental services and software a mix of both Loris comments about the app that she developed and the applications that that has on the good side in e-commerce is very much also built on the provision of services both in terms of getting product online and delivered but also the consumer interface on the other end and then finally in terms of ten days comments about the apps that he's developed certainly financing fundamentally as a service and the way that technology is changing the way that that service is being delivered and making it more inclusive and and available and I make those comments because I think we still have a challenge in educating countries and their populations about the fundamental importance of building a solid foundation of services trade commitments because services economies in economies across the globe will not grow unless trade and investment enables them to grow in various ways and the other piece to that and just a couple of statistics all throughout all of us literally in this room are services suppliers and in the United States for example 8 out of 10 US jobs are service appliers 10 million US jobs depend on trade and services and investment and globally about half of jobs our services job so tremendously important and when you talk about the future a tremendously important part of services jobs the other very fundamental point is this is not just a services sector issue services are integrated into all other economic sectors particularly manufacturing and agriculture historically from things like insurance to distribution to financing but with the advent of digital trade the invention of the internet the explosion of data flows software sophisticated software and the technology that's growing with that that element and the transformation of services to digitally enabled services has even compounded the positive impact of services on manufacturing on agriculture 25 to 49 percent of the input of manufacturing and services and I believe it's the OECD that documented 60 percent of jobs in the manufacturing sector are actually services related now the data is not unfortunately as good as it should be on both the services trade side and on the investment side and so actually the picture is not as well documented as it should be but let me bring it back to the the conversation today in terms of the future of trade it was very very encouraging to see that the world trade report that I know the director-general is going to be talking about tomorrow recognizing the increasing importance of services and technology and really transforming revolutionizing the structure of trade certainly by 2030 so when you look at what are the factors that in my mind are going to be the biggest elements a lot of things are already in motion and I think will continue to rebel I revolutionized certainly the way that services are delivered and the way they're supporting other sectors in the economy certainly the advent of online platforms the proliferation of on point platform the advent of software interactive online software has certainly changed the way that services are delivered and increasingly in sophisticated ways smart technology the combination of technology often sensors services and big data and analytics has absolutely transformed the way that services are delivered but more importantly it is caused a greater integration of products and services that are sold together and are also from the production process from the front end to the back end services integrated with manufacturing the same thing is happening in agriculture where you now have farmers plowing their fields with sensors embedded in the wheels of their tractors so they can test soil quality we're going to have a panel tomorrow that's going to talk about more generally services in agriculture or cloud technology can help farmers predict climates so they know when to plant their crops so that's been a huge impact and we'll be going forward the Internet of Things the bone the bundling of services and goods the greater reliance on mobile devices I think that's had a huge huge impact especially in certain areas of the world the Director General Menston and greater reliance on our artificial intelligence I think that's going to be a huge challenge and the rapid increase in services being delivered remotely that is certainly going to change the way that rules need to respond to the growth of services and technology we also mentioned blockchains just last couple of points the collateral effects of this one the absolute explosion of data flows the in 2015 alone the volume of data flows exceeded the flow of goods trade so a huge challenge we're already facing will face the high demand for data storage and data processing so huge explosion and demand for data storage and data services farms the also the high demand for and concern for privacy frameworks where there's a lack of harmony and there's an absolute need for development of frameworks like the APEC private frame and others in terms of of needing to meet that challenge and also the growing importance of SMEs because predominantly more and more jobs are being created by the creation of SMEs so that's where the jobs of future are going to to come lastly just let me mention some of the potential current dangers we're facing and the risks going forward the demands for data localization and local processing requirements are a huge problem and they do threaten to break down the Lu delivery of services in an efficient cost-effective manner on a cross-border basis the pressure to impose duties on electronic transmissions is another huge challenge which if not handled correctly could lead to to a serious breakdown in cross-border e-commerce cyber security risks and overreaction by governments is another area that needs to be tackled cooperative frameworks need to be developed to handle that carefully and the limits of services market access commitments are not are also limiting and we're pressing up against those and we need to find ways of going forward let me stop there it's just some trends some collateral effects in some of the dangers we're facing [Applause] all right so I will now turn to a few sorry struggling with technology here a few questions that I'm getting from different places of the world inside the room and those there are many coming in so I will ask you to be concise if you can but of course not avoiding them so I have a first one and I'm not sure that we have an answer for that it comes from Primitivo bolaños Reynoso from Columbia and I think Jack maybe you could give us a first look at that he's asking about the impact of cryptocurrency whether in trade and in these platforms cryptocurrency has a role and he also asked about the multilateral trading system the WTO legal system and I would say from our perspective in the WTO we have a working group that is looking at currencies and exchange rates but cryptocurrency is not on the radar at this point in time I'm sure it will come but at this point it's still very much outside our radar screens but I don't know whether there in the real world how cryptocurrency is is behaving and affecting things we do first I'm not a big fan of the cryptocurrency I think it has future but today most of the big coins we're discussing is it's just like fancy story in the future they should be encrypted currency and should be supported by government and she's supported by the good technology I'm a believer we are the believer blockchain technology the technology behind the increments that is the the very important the blockchain technology blockchain technology plus the Internet is fundamentally changed a lot of things especially the financial sectors but today it just like in currencies most like at 20 years ago internet they will go on the right track but when people exaggerate the function of this let them make some mistakes let them have setbacks and then they will come back and then with Duga right things we made a mistake on ecommerce to the idea we had 20 years ago by ecommerce but it's totally different from what we are doing today so for sure 20 years later there were this kind of coins and currency would come out would be quite different from what we see today yeah I entirely agree with you that the technology behind the cryptocurrencies is fundamental yeah may help significantly the small and medium enterprises because with distributed ledger technology I think we may overcome a lot of these that the lack of trust that the system has on small players so they will become with with the block chains better known by the system and will overcome a lot of the obstacles that we have today I have I have a question from the room maybe Laura maybe you could handle that but also also Jack if you want their asking it's it's Audrey I said from Canada would e-commerce business reduce the quality of our human relationships and how can we compensate for the dehumanization here do you have any views on it's a fascinating question I actually think it's the exact opposite like what we're seeing is that ecommerce store is especially direct to consumer events they have their directly in touch with the end customer they were talking to the end customer through social media Instagram is amazing for director consumer brands and it's also a very personal relationship we see direct to consumer brands having a much more direct and per relationship with the end customer compared to large reach retail giants before a lot of these direct to consumer brands are selling a lifestyle and identity they're they're selling products made in a certain way often also made in a sustainable way they're trying to be very different from the more traditional events that were out there before many times they're also selling a founder story so it's it's people can relate to the person making the product and there is more transparency around where the product is coming from so that's my take on it but I'd also be curious about Jack's take I absolutely agree with you I think ecommerce enriched the relationship between the people I've got we got a almost two 300 million people shop in our mobile phone every day they especially every evening we got at least a 60 million people most of the women they spend 3-4 hours on e-commerce we sought to buy anything they're chatting they're chatting with people and those especially I've got a lot of engineers they don't talk to a lot of people in the daytime but on the online they talk hours and hours and people don't know each other in the next door but people know each other in the other part of the world so it's enriching you the ability to know more people ecommerce is so different today the way you think about going by today people on the e online they start to chat they'll start to discuss they start to copy the movie and all the other things before they buy anything of course we got a lot of robots to discuss with them but anyway I think this really improving the relationship of the people and that we improve the trust can you imagine that you are buying something from Argentina in a village in China you don't know this guy you never meet this guy but you start to why the money and that guy was not even receive the money asking people to deliver other people he did not know to deliver the things from countries to countries to your home it's the trust that we are building trade is to build up the trust this is the most valuable thing in this world people don't know each other but they start to trust each other and this is the group about the trade and goodbye the ecommerce thank you jack today I got a question here about the role for governments and international organizations to support firms like Lydia or even Shippo so is there a role for governments and international organizations to help you or is it best to get them out of the way and let you do your thing you know it's a very interesting question I mean our sense is to accomplish what we want to accomplish keep in mind the small business credit gap small business alone credit gap are around in emerging markets is close to four trillion dollars that's the gap and what's clear is that even though private sector will play a very big role we also need the policy support as well and when you think of an example you mentioned earlier a regulation the first mores that came to mind was harmony and clarity because when you think about emerging markets and it plays like Africa where look 50 plus countries different currencies different languages for us to take full advantage of the billion plus people right it's clear that it needs to be harmony across all these different markets so that folks understand look how can goods services on people trade and interact across these different borders and the second point around clarity is what clarity will bring is allowing the private sector to understand how can we play over the long term - Austin Bowie so it's a long winded way to say look we believe there is a role for governments to play in policy that protects the consumer but at the same time doesn't stifle innovation so for us we work hand in hand in different markets we actually were operating in three countries were landing in Nigeria we have a team in Portugal we have a team in New York and to the point around look trust and and and data it's clever we're unable to do this without policy support on plot policy clarity so it is important and it is needed so that we can achieve these goals we want to achieve to say something for the innovation about regulation in a government the only thing they want to do and they really want to do is regulate the thing we worry about is most government offices even never trust the e-commerce never tried the e-commerce shopping online or shipping things they start to regulate so how many ministers have ever tried ecommerce shipping across the board buying borrowing money online very few of them but they are the regulators and this is something really work make us work they say I know my my children are doing that it's their children know how to regulate so the other thing I would say is have you heard body a bill called a red flag bill a red flag act that happened in 1860s in UK the United Stated time atom automobiles that the mobile the big cars so a lot of people who are the horsemen they hated the cars there because they destroyed the jobs of the car the horsemen the host may at that time are considered to be the white collar people so when cars came they destroy the jobs so these guys went to the governor's say please stop the cars so there is act called a red flag bill every color of a flag and no car is allowed to drive over seven miles an hour and that stopped the innovation it's not the regulator's regulations that solve the problems its innovating that solved the problems I think all the government offices now should watch cross hand watch it with curiosity and support them not to stop him especially Europe I found all the European government they really love regulations they worry a lot they worry about this worry about that listen Rory worry is opportunity when people worry about this shipping we have a company Laura beaut this is solve the shipping problems when there's a problem people worry about a financing what we've got a problems from Nigeria young people so we created something to solve the problems if you start to regulate you're killing everything and unfortunately most of regulators they never used these kind of services they just to say I worry because of my grandfather worried about a but grandchildren worry about a graph I don't worry about that so please leave some time for innovation watch it carefully one of the reasons why Alibaba grows so fast because the government do not realize though ecommerce grew like that when this study realized that we got we've become very slow and we're gonna correct so that's the way I'm sorry I just to tell the truth I want to give an opportunity for those young people to solve problems not regulators to solve the problems but we have to protect the trade if there's a tray to protect ism we should protect the trade protect innovation protect IP and protect innovation this is things we should protect but not to say well I have to protect my rights my dignity my power this is what's happening today thank you jack and I that's very good and I and I and I think that it's sometimes misunderstood the when when international organizations like the WTO suppose UN environment as well step in governments already did interfere and often they interfere in the wrong way as you just said so what we try to do is make people sit down and discuss good practices what did work what are the things that actually make it easier what are the things that actually enable things so I see our role as a role of a facilitator of getting the bad actions out of the way and that I suppose is the role that we would like to see international organizations having in this conversation and your input is extremely important for that but Eric you wanted to say something about this Jim thank you so much I mean I fundamentally share Jacque Mars view of the world the world is much much much better than at any other point in human history can be messaging Edna very warm life expectancy child mortality poverty Environment Protection what ever very measured the world is at the best place ever exactly contrary to the view you get through media I mean you you have just a snapshot of the Industrial Revolution remind yourself ladies and gentlemen before the Industrial Revolution life expectancy on planet Earth was 29 that was how much you could on average expect to be now it's 71 young girls in Seoul South Korea cannot on average expect to be 90 not one or two hundred that happened in history also but on average South Korean girls can expect to be 90 so there is enormous enormous enormous progress and it's to a large extent related to to innovation and you are right I mean this and the number examples of people who didn't get it give you one of my favorites when when internet came to my nation Norway we had in the Minister Foreign Affairs I was at a time during peace negotiations we had internet stations so classical go to go into the internet and there were lots and lots and colleagues who said oh this is something very fashionable but if we go away there will be no internet in the future today of course it's a joke I just looked into the companies of the world 8 biggest companies on the planet are all net based all tech all of them are either on the vet in the west coast of the United States America or in China search shows also where innovation is happening or not not all of China sat down and central China and the West close to the United States and you have the 8 biggest companies in the world but we also need regulations Coster are a number of areas where we cannot do just with innovation we also need innovation I mean a clear example is the enormous plastics course which is now taking over this planet we need to regulate markets for plastic but at the same time do the innovation which will attend solve the problem but let me give you one example of an era where business is demanding regulation or or ask us for that I think in Norway we are a very small country but one thing we've got right in Norway is that then government do regulation they don't just drop it out like that but they start a long process with consultation with business as to what will be the effective way or regulated market to achieve your your aim as an example we anova now have the highest penetration electrical vehicles and the way in the world why was that well there was a conversation as to how it can be can be tweaked the market so to get more electrical vehicles we have 50% now much I and I moved more likely weeks in China that person virus we are far ahead of anyone else we change the tax system so that electrical vehicles can better out in the competition with with the others and they gave some introductory or first like you are allowed to go in the bus lanes and through that market was tweaked and changed the market was in that sense created by the government even across the innovation coming from Elon Musk in California from Japanese or Chinese companies producing the the electrical vehicles and now the issue which I discussed in California too we expect was how to make the electronic electronic market more recyclable how to make that recycling market then you need to construct the iPhones and iPads or n there anything else in such a way that is fits into a circular economy cannot be just at the end end use because I mean an iPad is well-designed in California two together in China and the components for I don't know 30 40 different nations in the world it need to be this signed for a circular economy for that to happen the tech companies told me well then we need to speak to governments because governments have any number of pulses which are bad for the circular economy and there's some which are good we want the government to put in place more good and few bad policies so why I agree with you most problems at the end are sold through innovation still you need regulation of markets to drive the innovation in the right direction okay I'm frankly swamped with questions I'm I apologize we will not be in a position to answer even a third of them or less but so let's quickly try to address a few of them there is a question here from sanchita Jain from all the in the association of industries and that question is pretty broad so I will put two whoever raises the finger first so the question is if technology is going to rule trade in 2030 how do you think that more than 60% of the world which has no access to technology can develop so there is a big digital divide out there I don't think anybody denies that what from my perspective will just get the ball rolling I think the answer is to get the other 40% on board it's not stopping the 60% because they are not going to stop they are going to continue they are going to advance but how do we get the ones that are left behind in the game I think that that is the big challenge that's what we need to do and I and I think I would match that with another question from Jimin from Action Aid the question is as we look to the future what changes are needed to move towards SDG 5 which is gender equality how do we have women it is another part particularly the most vulnerable women in the market how do we get them on board so how do we get those are not connected that are not playing the digital game the digital they're not connected how do we get them on board and who wants to go first Christine well I know there are lots of ideas and I'm sure there are things that the other panelists are working on very directly and certainly Jack Ma mentioned very specifically things that al abama is doing to get small businesses in particular more online and and certainly from csi's perspectives many of our members as well have specific relationships and programs that they're using to try and better integrate small businesses and one just by improving the availability of their platforms and getting small businesses ability to reach global markets and that probably is the most basic way that we're seeing that kind of inclusiveness in occurring very rapidly to many of our companies as I'm sure others are involved in looking at innovative ways to try and spread inclusiveness for example in Africa one of the things that one of our member companies is looking at and has looked at is a new spectrum and they buy it and they make it available in countries for populations to use additionally there are also multiple programs that look at training because certainly the skill gap once you make and once you create the connectivity then you also need the training and the skills to take advantage of it so I would just mention those few areas where a greater inclusion in the last I would mention our electronic payment services which is another very important way in which the unbanked in countries can become more involved and more included and and so I think that's another area of services that's very important ok I think Jack and Eric both want to say something but we're running out of time so quick objective answers at this point would be very welcome Jack yeah I think Internet technology this technology revolution is made for increase if it actually this is a great opportunity for developing countries and underdeveloped countries Internet is not made for rich countries think about these credit cards when they designed they only for rich people today the mobile phone payment suddenly cover all of the world right the PC came only go to developer countries but today mobile phone in the rural areas in the villages all of that so this this technology revolution come from the bottom not from the top it takes six sixty years when electricity was invented 60 years later cannon freaka started using electricity but today with the only two or three years mobile phone cover all of the world so this thing we need a government we need a government every government developing countries please spend money in frustrate all the building the infrastructure of Internet access this system investment they should putting on that and enable their small business to global by global cell global deliver global pay and grow with travel this is what we believe the government should take not to regulate but to promote this is what my view is about thank you Eric very quickly from the same notebook what's surprising to me is not that he said digital divide but exactly the opposite how fast most marginalized and the purest people in the world are picking up the new technologies it seems that they I mean we have maybe 1 billion extreme pure on the planet a mobile phone is among the first you buy as soon as you have something to fill in the stomach the next you do is to buy a mobile phone I'm traveling all over Africa you come no place even in the purest of places the people young people don't have a cellular phone it may not be the most advanced may not be able to do everything but bad to have it so it's the first item people are buying so it shows an enormous democratization of the world and if I may add on the gender perspective at least in northern Europe girls are not doing better than boys in every topic in school absolutely everything in my nation Norway every I mean when I was a child we were told that girls can well they can do English language maybe history but they cannot do physics or chemic chemical or off not for sure not mathematics well well now girls are doing best at every level from kindergarten to postgraduate at every level in every subject girls are on average doing better than boys and in all the hard issues the technology issues and and that's there is only one area where email still are doing better that's your favorite occupation Brazil soccer let's not talk about soccer for the more can I add a one more about a woman I think this is the difference between 21st century in last eccentric 20 centuries back last century we compete our muscles this century compete on wisdom and use experience one of the secret sauce for Alibaba success is we have 49% of the employees of women 30% of senior management of women they care if the computer the only computer is a very code but you have to feel the warmth behind the computers that is the women that is the people women care others more than the men kept you know maintain themselves more women character you know husband and parents and their kids so when you know how to care in this century you have the winning opportunities and by the way let me tell you online shoppers online shop the the power sellers most often successful success people a woman so this is the great opportunity for women and if you want to make the world better women should take more jobs and leadership's on that all right I'm trying to get the questions there we got many different questions here some about the WTO and I just apologize for everybody that sent questions I cannot have time to cover all of them I would try to stick to some questions which address the issue of the debate more more closely the for example there is a question here from Daniel Pfeffer of ICC Brazil is asking how can technology help build trust among people in nations and that goes back to a question I asked you tuned they like blockchain is that something that could revolutionize financing for small and medium enterprises you know there's this know your customer very important and legitimate policy now in place and does do new technologies help you know the small players to be better known and to build trust in them and anything else you want to say there another question that I'm sorry I can't find it now as I can artificial intelligence draft regulations instead of us basically so any anything you can tell us in that perspective will be helpful I mean what's clear if you do if you think of including the rest of the world right and if we go with the approach let's say for example want to build the Bank of the future it's clear that if you attempt to put a bank physical bank branch or a physical retail store in every single location around the world where folks are excluded in take another hundred years and it's time that we don't have so what's clear that technology is going to continuously bridge the gap towards Financial Inclusion literacy etc and the beauty of what we are doing is because we lend just using data essentially you're doing it without bias so what that means is also matter if you are a man if you're a woman if you're old if you are young essentially as long as you sure you're a good actor in the system you're able to get access to financial services that can maturely change your life right and so to the point I made earlier around look how what role technology play it's clear that it will ease access to financial services easy access to trade it'll open up markets and you'll do it in a way that's ten times potentially 100 times faster than what we've seen in like in the last century and reported on blockchain and I don't trust for us if you think about what that materially means in terms of connecting a buyer and a seller so essentially what you're able to say is look the goods that are going to a particular destination can be trusted and so in terms of the speed in terms of releasing documents payment of services that will materially move faster than what the options are today so one we reduce bias in lending and access to services it will open up markets and it will shrink the time it takes to financially include the rest of the world one question here and Erica will ask you but again I remind we're out of time so it's briefly as possible cuz this is a big question the impacts of climate change especially on small island developing states like the Caribbean for example we know that pretty much almost every year something is going to happen a hurricane and in other places of the world that tsunamis and things so the impact is coming how can we use technology and to support the the efforts of these catastrophes that are pretty much predictable we know they're coming how can we help with new technologies how can how can trade even support the efforts to mitigate the impact of these catastrophes in these countries here there are two forces working at the same time what one is mother earth and mothers is angry that's for sure mother I think we have misbehaved and she's reacting back with as you said hurricanes sea level rise extreme storms we will see a lot more adverse weather events in the future but there's a counter force and that's a course that humans are much better organized spaced a stronger civil society a better linked and technology can be used so while yes we will see there will seem more and worse storms we all serve society which is better prepared for it I mean let me take you one place of assertive it will illustrate and that's in Bangladesh but it's very much the same as in in the small island developing States a place called Kokomo clear in southern Bangladesh among the most vulnerable communities on the on the earth when it comes to climate change in the past if there was a big storm the community will be completely wiped out but now they have any number of protection protection measures that built the houses on pillars so that a storm can come on under that even made sure that the cattle can be taken to these places because I mean very very pure man the two curves you have it's critical for you for a future we'll try to protect it they have warning systems on mobile phones because even though people appear there all have a mobile phone this boring system will immediately turn in and override the rest of the information on the mobile phone because people may also have TV and exactly this exactly the same so society is much and state is much better prepared in the 1970s there was a cyclone in Bangladesh killing 500,000 people probably the biggest biggest natural catastrophe in in modern times and where in the world if something similar happened today it will be bad maybe there will be deaths in the hundreds maybe even in the thousands but nothing even similar to the 1970s and that applies also for most small island developing states yes mother earth is very angry and will hit hard back because we misbehave but also society better prepared so we and stepping up so let's do both better involves prepare ourselves for for climate events but also reduce the emissions so if you see more or less less of it oh thank you like a question here from Bloomberg will there be a function in WTO in 2030 so I will start answering absolutely yes undoubtedly but having said that I don't know Christine maybe yeah well certainly from a services perspective and I'd use that in the broadest possible term to cover services digitally enabled services I think it is critical that we continue to have an even stronger and functioning WTO multilateral rule system it was really the negotiation of the GATS back in the early 90s that laid the foundation for the growth of an explosion of services trade services and investment so I think it is critical so it is equally critical that we now engage in the exercise of looking at what reforms what updating may need to be done and certainly the ongoing discussions and eventual launch of e-commerce negotiations are hugely important and having binding effective dispute settlement is a very important part of that and and the last piece of what I just wanted to say is that your question about inclusiveness really goes to the importance of the WTO and that is that if we want to increase connectivity and the availability of the Internet as jack Mayo says building infrastructure is critical the government and regulators clearly are going to have a role but the question is can't what can we do to prevent balkanization of the what can we do to prevent nations from exerting sovereignty over than that and and what can we do because that infrastructure unless there is accompanying free flow of data on a cross-border basis unless their ear disciplines that don't allow imposition of duties on e-commerce so that it's choked if electronic transmission of data is not choked through search for revenue that is going to be a real problem so we must face those challenges and I think if we do and I think we can through as you say endless creativity especially with all the innovators on this stage and and elsewhere I think it's a challenge we can meet thank you there's another question here from John's age young doesn't say where he is and this is to Jack it is mr. Jack Ma how do you assess the impact to China of a trade war which initiated by America should the world still be hopeful don't put him in trouble here Jack yes well I think that it's easy to launch a wall but it's difficult to stop the wall this thing if it goes it's gonna hurt everybody I think the next two thirty years the world is facing huge challenge about this chap this technology revolution I think a u.s. in China shall work it together to solve this challenge to create more jobs to cure the poverty solved using technology to solve the disease and environment instead of this kind of wars it's going to destroy not only China USA traders gonna destroy lots of other countries small business it's no good for everybody I think in 21st century we should have the solution to solving the problems by not confronting each other so I feel as a business person business community we don't like this just like a parents normally the five thing I thought we fight for kids the kids said we don't want you to fight we have our ways to solve so I think this theme in last for twenty years if it's unfortunately now we are hopeful we think using the technology using the internet supporting the small business using innovation ways there is a way out trade deficit our trade surplus is no longer being an issue USA grow almost a four percent of the GDP even if they have such large trade deficit but I think the next 20 years if you ask me twenty thirty the thing we don't want to see and to see when that happened that trade deficit top is last a century stop industry period it's about the trade of quality it's not about the trade deficit people love the trade the trade improving jobs right when trade stops sometimes the wall starts so trade is the way to stop wars trade is the way to build of trust trade is not the weapon to fight against each other there will be a better way to make a fair trade so this is my view and I'm a very hopeful I think government people today they are smart they have the wisdom and I people like us business people should always try to build up the trust between different countries cultures so I think we should be hopeful it's no longer the best thing when it starts is going to be difficult stop so let us try to solve the problem and business community should stand out and say we don't need a war we need business that's what my view well thank you there is a gotta information that room W those of you who know the WTO is another very big room that we have in the main building is packed of people who couldn't find room here you know watching the webcast from room W so just wanted to say thank you for them and apologizing that they're not physically here with us I don't think we can increase the room for next year but we do our best to accommodate people with one more day maybe Laura maybe you could feel this question this is from democracy matters in the UK it's a broad question but it's I think something related to you they are asking what trade rules do we need to create now to bring about the future that people want in 2030 so from your perspective is there anything that needs to be done at this point technologists and a businessperson I I don't make any public loss but what we're seeing is like we're especially looking at at ecommerce and cross border ecommerce cross border ecommerce is still a little complicated or actually quite complicated for SMBs they're looking at duties and taxes that they need to figure out International shipping is something that's hard especially on the duties and taxes site I think there's a lot that people can do to simplify that to put some standards into place that allow s and B's to be able to tackle that in a like efficient and easy way so that's from the like duties and taxes side I would say independent of trade regulations another like thing that governments could provide that I am very excited about is like when I I've been out of school a while now but when I was in school like software development was not something that was taught in class and that's actually something I'm quite worried about I'm worried that people look at their smartphones look at platforms that like Alibaba like other platforms out there and think it's magic it's not magic anyone create can create platforms like that anyone can build software anyone can build applications so for for me like where I stand in terms of trade I would like to have a like avid start ad like the educational level in in primary school school as early as possible to be able to get our next generation successful and fully involved in building software for that well thank you thank you very much there is another question here and they're asking the question is from Melissa Canada asking enterpreneurs basically I suppose the regulation is usually three steps behind the innovation that's the point Jack was making just a moment ago how can we make regulation faster and more relevant my my view particularly is talking to these people they know what needs to be done they are the ones on the ground they're the ones who experience the obstacles and the difficulties of doing business talk to them more often and getting the opportunity that you're here what what are the things that need to be done to make regulations faster and more relevant your I mean the point you made is spot-on right I mean one thing that we attempt to do is to be very proactive with regulators I think oftentimes as entrepreneurs sometimes you can be scared at a regulator and say look if I sit in my little corner of the world and hope no one notices me I can grow without any issues but what's clear in today's world is for you to hit the scale that you want to hit and to the point that Jack made earlier that the world is collapsing right and it it's now really a global supply chain where not just how your physical goods coming from around the world but also your talents come from around the world as well and for you to be able to take full advantage of the opportunity to say look I want to have the best talent from every single partner what you have to engage it with regulators so for us what we do is really go in a very proactive stance to say look here's what we're trying to build here's the benefits for you which is job creation which is access to capital for entrepreneurs and here's how we can all win because one thing I find is that folks in government look they care about job creation they care about taxes and the camera' protecting the customer amongst other things and so where we come in and say look because of the way we operate naturally we are going to create more jobs because we're getting capital to small businesses naturally we are going to allow for financial inclusion because we're allowing for women for minorities for folks who are not in urban centers when rural parts of the world to get access to financing I mean the example I'll give is of all the thousands of loans we've done we physically visited maybe ten of our borrowers and so you can imagine what that means in terms of getting access to people around the world so we like to sit at the table because if you're not at the table the challenge you have is that regulation is being made without your voice and that radiation can very destructive and it's tough to unwind so for us where we play a role is look we're at the table here's what what we intend to do and we pound on that table for those entrepreneurs those small businesses so that they can realize their dream of creating sustainable businesses I entirely agree with that but Jack there's another one here you're popular with the questions research this is from developing alternatives for women in a new area so to you and if Laura in tune they want to pitch in research indicates that the high commission rates changed charged by online platforms are a major impediment for small and medium enterprises how can we overcome that well I I don't know about what do you mean about the high commission for a platform like us we charge 1.7 1.5 percent of the transactions you've finished compared to the traditional business that the money for cross ball the trade or whatever trade at least legis 15 to 50 17 percent and I think the bigger we are the bigger the platform the motivators we have the service the after the cost of Technology will lower the the rating is going down so what this is what we are doing actually our charging rating is getting lower when our platform is getting bigger so in the future the conference is not about this is comfortable we a platform with doing a lot of things that a government's supposed to do so the problem between government and platform is going to be in trouble so this is something that I don't know how to deal with that guess we're I understand I'm gonna say this is supposed something that I should do but actually did not do the well that we are doing that so I don't feel that the Commission for small business on the platform is getting higher or more important on the on the on the others actually we think the small business if you want have deliver if you are the payment if you want all the cloud computing to things yourself it's much more expensive you have no chance to compete with big companies but using platform you are using the most cost-effective technology that can compete with anybody anywhere anytime firms are providing services to e-commerce stores small and mid-sized that they don't have to develop in-house anymore so that means they don't need to have big software development teams to figure out how to build a payment gateway how to build a storefront they can just piece together existing technologies and a lot of these existing technologies these days are their pricing structure is made for SMBs like there are no upfront installation costs you can in this example it's it's a pay-as-you-go or you only get charged when you're making a cell and these kinds of structures are very favorable for small and midsize businesses that are just getting started that are trying to grow their businesses as well so I think where we the other part to to point out though we've been talking about trusts a lot I think Trust also gets created through the names of these kinds of platforms like you buy on on Alibaba or you buy using PayPal and you know when something goes wrong you have someone to talk to to mediate it's not going to be someone is going to help you out you're going to be heard yeah by the way I want to say I'm not speaking for platform people say Alibaba check my Yossi of a platform no I'm a retired to see China now I speak as a teacher if a person been working on e-commerce for 23 years I want to share with you that for a small business if you want to sell things cross the boat deliver 72 hours everywhere in the world 24 hours domestically without using a platform it's impossible but this is how app love the first technology revolution had a format called Factory the second technology have a business format called company now the third technology will create a platform and platform is going to coordination between government cut company profit and profit so it's very complicated please do not worry about the Commission the Commission will load them because the market effect thank you Eric I have one for you is from a lien by yacht from the International University in Geneva the question is would increasing pollution from the international transport sector linked to a growing trade any commerce threaten the gains I eternal optimist I believe we are on the verge of doing exactly the opposite we can just a clearly do some because I'm more transport with drastically reduced pollution with obviously rice electrical vehicles I mean we will soon see electrical vehicles I mean it's just a matter of time everyone knows that the future of C to transport is electric it may be in the next two or three years it may be take 10 years that to some extent depending on on where the government's are driving this market in India as an example and the government Owen does now the first boy of electrical vehicles in India many other states are India and Maharashtra telangana's examples and other governments of fitting electrical vehicles out to create infrastructure for the rest so we see a very very fast I think movement into electrical vehicles if you look to the more global Global global picture shipping is also we also see a gradual reduced pollution from from shipping and from air traffic it's maybe not as immediate but also air traffic it's not long before we see before we will see electrical flights the the airport authority of my nation has just declared that in ten years time we will have normal scheduled electrical flights in my nation and all the big companies are working on this so yes indeed I think we'll see a future with more trade more transport but it much less emissions and that too cause what we need to drive by innovation by government regulation and and and and the other ways and there's so much we can do so let's not be pessimistic thank you Eric and my clock is ticking down our time is up so I still have a few questions here actually many that I couldn't cover I apologize for those who sent their questions but I thank them if usually for participating in some way or another the questions themselves will be food for thought for our future proceedings I know that all of you have places to be in a few minutes so I'm not going to hold you back I want to thank you all for being here I want to thank those who are watching us on webcast and I want you to please show some appreciation to these people who are here today with our sharing very very very important insights and and with a round of applause thank you all very much [Applause] you you [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: World Trade Organization

Views: 29,620

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Id: BjIDoB96LS8

Length: 107min 42sec (6462 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 02 2018