This initiative supports work towards a global system of digital trade that drives growing and more equal opportunities. The current landscape of fragmented digital trade regulations hinders many small and medium- sized firms, in particular, from fully leveraging the benefits of e-commerce beyond their own home market.
The initiative focuses on three key areas:
(1) Promoting regulatory collaboration;
(2) Delivering effective and interoperable e-commerce and payment ecosystems;
(3) Exploring and incubating innovative trade-enabling technology;
The Digital Economy Agreement Leadership (DEAL) community convenes regulators from digital economy agreements (DEAs) and digital trade rulemaking fora (e.g. AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol, WTO JSI E-Commerce negotiations), together with private-sector representatives and other stakeholders to share and promote best practices and impactful outcomes.
Within this, the ASEAN Digital Economy Agreement Leadership (DEAL) project actively supports the negotiation of the ongoing Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) negotiations within ASEAN. This project, funded by the ASEAN-Korea Cooperation Fund (AKCF) supports these negotiations by: (1) maintaining an online interactive repository of previous and existing negotiating outcomes to help negotiators agree on text and language that is broadly aligned with existing norms and standards; (2) conducting a cross-ASEAN business survey of MSMEs to better inform negotiators on the needs, priorities and preferences of their own MSMEs; (3) sensitizing ASEAN DEFA negotiators and ASEAN Secretariat to the perspective of regional and international businesses on issues under negotiation.
Digital Trade Development Program. This initiative tackles longstanding pain points crucial to making the benefits of e-commerce and digital trade accessible to MSMEs in both developed and developing countries, across: (1) policy, (2) connectivity, (3) finance, (4) logistics, and (5) skills. It identifies barriers to national digital trade success and helps governments effect practical change, working with local and global stakeholders. It builds on the World Economic Forum community’s successful track record in helping deliver trade facilitation, investment facilitation and services regulation reforms across African, Asian and Latin American economies. The program achieves rapid and sustainable results by ensuring top-down support and bottom-up design. Impact is measured in terms of the ease of doing business in the cross-border digital economy for MSMEs.
TradeTech and PAGA The TradeTech Initiative convenes a community of technology start-ups, investors, exporters and supply chain firms to explore the development of innovate trade-enabling technology within a supportive ecosystem. Through a business incubator and regulatory sandbox it accelerates the growth of technology applications to serve global trade needs.
The Payments to Advance Growth for All (PAGA) initiative focuses on improving access to and interoperability of cross-border digital payment solutions.
The World Economic Forum’s Digital Trust initiative seeks to establish a global consensus among stakeholders regarding what measurable steps can be taken to improve the trustworthiness of...
Cross-border payments enable international trade and globalization but are often costly, slow and opaque. As demand rises for faster, more transparent cross-border transactions and new in...
This report, written in collaboration with Sea, calls for a targeted and multistakeholder approach to tackling barriers to financial inclusion for the ASEAN region’s digital generation. T...
Digital payment ecosystems are the invisible infrastructure powering commerce, trade and people’s daily lives. With the onset of global COVID-19 pandemic the value of digital payments for...
Leveraging the World Economic Forum's extensive community of payment experts, this report provides a forward-looking and inclusive approach to defining and measuring the different types o...
This publication identifies the building blocks for TradeTech policy adoption: the 5 Gs of TradeTech. Trade agreements and plurilateral initiatives are exploring the interplay between tec...
This white paper series, composed of eight parts, explores numerous critical topics related to CBDC and stablecoins. It aims to inform policy-makers, digital currency issuers, financial a...
This white paper is a preliminary inquiry into the effects of DSTs on trade, investment and competition, drawing from multistakeholder interviews and a survey of firms facing these measures.
This White Paper on advancing data flow governance in the Asia-Pacific region explores international and regional best practices in four domestic contexts.
This report aims to shed light on the landscape of emerging trade technologies and consider the opportunities and challenges for each, ranging from AI to IoT to 3D printing.
The project was a true co-creation of local and international multi-stakeholders. The report showcases our methodology, the progress made and next steps in the development of the Electron...
Digital trade in Asia had been booming even before the COVID-19 pandemic that drove large numbers of firms and consumers online. The region has also been at the forefront of digital trade...
A major international initiative on data flows, the Osaka Track, was launched by heads of governments under Japan’s G20 leadership in 2019. This paper develops a framework for ‘data free ...
The rapid expansion of access to digital payments has made it possible for consumers to conveniently make purchases for goods and services from merchants around the world. The current COV...
This White Paper provides guidance on how to deal with business and policy challenges as 3D printing (3DP) might revolutionize the way products are made and may provoke unintended consequ...
This paper provides insights, developed through expert inputs, on domestic good practices as well as trade policy tools that can help balance facilitating cross-border data flows while pr...
By the end of 2022, Alliance initiatives had achieved an initial 10-times return on investment, saving US$ 60 million in seven project countries.
A new initiative will identify challenges and solutions to growing digital FDI: cross-border investment in the digital economy.
Inclusive growth needs open and global networks. Maintaining and deepening these networks could deliver $3.7 trillion in growth for developing countries by 2025.
China should consider how its cross-border data transfer rules could threaten its status as a global leader in both manufacturing and the digital economy.
A cashless society is on the horizon in Japan, as the government introduces a system for paying salaries digitally – without going through bank accounts.
By regulating digital trade between economies, the digital economy agreements can be especially beneficial for SMEs looking for opportunities in digital business.
New technology, regulation, and ESG commitments can transform trade finance assets into profitable capital market products that SMEs can readily access.
TradeTech could overhaul and enhance how countries exchange goods and would benefit both businesses and consumers. But, for now, policy barriers remain.
Maximizing the contribution of digitally-delivered services to the global economic recovery depends on curbing unwarranted policy uncertainty.
With more than 15,000 varieties and a market of $2 trillion, digital currencies are growing. What do these new digital currencies mean for international trade?
A widespread lack of awareness about digital regulation could threaten future innovation and increase fragmentation of this globally vital sector.
Governments and stakeholders need to cooperate more closely across borders in parallel to negotiating data openness in modern trade deals.
COVID-19 has accelerated adoption of digital tech, highlighting the need to modernize digital trade rules and buck the trend of digital protectionism.
Ensuring the relationship between openness and trust in data flows is mutually reinforcing will help strengthen international cooperation
Cross-border trade in digital services such as videoconferencing and entertainment is booming, but there are still too many barriers limiting its reach.
With widespread quarantine measures to cut COVID-19’s chains of transmission, digital payments give people at-home access to essential goods and services.
Foreign direct investment in the digital economy can help bring technology, know-how, jobs and growth to developing countries recovering from coronavirus.
It raises questions about the implications of potential new rules on cross-border data flows and the governance of data-sharing platforms.
A new World Economic Forum report highlights the rise in data restrictions and how countries can balance business, privacy and security goals.
Global e-commerce is worth a staggering $25.3 trillion - but levels of trust among consumers who are buying from countries other than their own is low. Here's how policymakers can start t...
As the digital economy continues to dominate, participants of a workshop at Davos are calling for an inclusive framework to improve the ability to do business abroad.
These are the innovations that could make global trade more efficient, more inclusive, and less costly.
In disadvantaged regions, digital connectivity can be a source of income and opportunity, and it's powering a new breed of enterprises.
