80 percent of all global trade is transacted through third-party lenders and cargo insurers, but the process is complex, can be costly and many banks find it too risky to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Blockchain has the potential to increase transparency, speed and accuracy in assessing risk across the trade finance process, which in turn could expand the supply of credit available for SMEs.
More than one-fourth of Americans work for themselves. There’s no stereotype. Independent workers are spread almost evenly across generations, gender, and geographies from cities to suburbs to small towns and rural America. Will you join their growing ranks?
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an incubator of trade policy ideas and a pragmatic driver of initiatives in emerging areas of trade that matter not only to the Asia-Pacific region, but also globally. Digital trade is one case study that shows how APEC serves as a building block in the iterative process of co-creating norms for trade.
AI is already changing global value chains and international trade patterns. Trade rules crafted today in the WTO or free trade agreements will play a critical role in further shaping how AI is further developed and deployed globally.
E-commerce allows us to order anything around the world with just an Internet connection and the click of a button. As digital trade has expanded, so have barriers like data localization. International trade rules are still racing to catch up with an increasingly digitally connected world.
Technology has enabled us to tap into a global labor pool of remote workers anywhere in the world there’s a good Internet connection. 48 million workers registered their services on online outsourcing sites in 2013, according to the World Bank.
Tencent and Alibaba are names you need to know. They are leaders among China’s five Big Tech firms. They are growing fast and starting to rival American giants Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Facebook. Whoever among these giants acquires the most consumer information on habits, preferences, spending patterns, and financial behaviors stands to win in our growing global digital economy.
At some point between the start of the Thanksgiving holiday and Cyber Monday, did you reach for your credit card or use another secure payment system like PayPal to make a purchase online? You’re in good company: 259 million Americans routinely buy online. Last year, internet sales in China on “Single’s Day” reached $25.3 billion — $6 billion more than what Americans purchased online over the entire Thanksgiving weekend. In the future, the whole world just might be cashless.
Until recently, the gains from commercial use of space manifested primarily in the growing use of satellites that enable precise navigational maps in your car and the dish on your roof to channel satellite television into your home. A new era is dawning in which private companies routinely launch payloads into space. We’re a long way off from having the framework of rules we might need here on Earth to accommodate the take off of the global space industry.
The Kardashians continually extend their dynasty, promoting their own products while recommending others on social media using Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. They’ve also created their own apps, in their own images, to push their own line of products. Love them or hate them, the Kardashians’ countless business ventures are stimulating both the global app economy — and the larger world economy.