Photo/website of the 14th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2023

The 14th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2023 (Summer Davos Forum) is unveiled in Tianjin on June 27. The theme of the forum is "Entrepreneurship: The Driving Force of the Global Economy".

At the forum, National Business Daily (NBD) interviewed the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on the trends in the trade sector for the next 10 years.

She said, "I think that in the next 10 years, we can get a lot from digital, digitally delivered services straight. That's where the excitement is. That's where the growth is growing at 8 %. Now, we believe that it will grow even more in the future, the same with green trade. So that's where we see the opportunities. We also see a third opportunity in trying to diversify supply chains to poorer countries and emerging markets that have not participated in globalization. So those are the three areas of trade where we think we can see growth."

With regard to extreme weather events, she noted that climate change is an existential threat and it will lead to changes in the pattern of production and of trade. "There is no doubt about that. Those areas that used to be bread baskets may no longer be."

"So we need to watch out for those patterns, and we need to be able to diversify. We need to maintain an open trading system. Because without the multilateral trading system, there may be countries in the world who may not get access to food, one in five calories consumed in the world is traded. So our answer to that is keep open trade, don't decouple, don't fragment, because we will need trading. In order to feed ourselves and fight climate change." she added.