G20

ICC World Business Summit, Hong Kong, June 2010

  • 1 May 2010

Results of research projects supported by the ICC Research Foundation on global trade and investment will feature prominently on the program of the ICC World Business Summit in June, 2010.

The Summit addresses issues related to the transformation of the global economy, with shifts in political and economic power, emergence of new markets, new technologies, new actors and new business models.
In all these dimensions, the Asia-Pacific Region is clearly an important arena where developments will occur. All of these factors underline more than ever the imperative of global interdependence; global challenges require global solutions.The projects supported by the Foundation seek to add objective facts and analysis to considerations about how trade and investment can contribute to world peace and prosperity. Results from the two following projects will be presented during the Summit:

Release of the results from the project by the Peterson Institute for International Economics on “The G20 in the wake of the Great Recession”, which examines the policies adopted by G20 countries in the midst of the economic crisis of the past two years. The results will be presented by project leader Gary Hufbauer, Senior Fellow at the PEII.

The research project focuses on trade and employment, assessing the potential effects of high unemployment on government policies affecting trade. Comparisons are made with past economic crises to assess the likely evolution of both trade volumes and employment as the world economy slowly emerges from the crisis.

The continuing threat of recourse to measures which represents barriers to trade is assessed in view of forecasts for continuing high levels of unemployment, particularly in developed economies.

Release of a report on the project by a research team at the Harvard Business School on “The Future of the Market Economy”.  Project leader Joseph Bower, Professor of Business Administration at HBS, will present the report.

Academics from HBS worked with CEOs of multinational companies to bring a business perspective to an examination of how the market economy can be made more effective in dealing with economic crises such as the one the world has just experienced.

The CEOs developed an Action Plan of measures which business, governments and multilateral organizations can take to help mitigate the effects of future economic crises.