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G20 fosters synergies between trade and investment promotion

Dear WIN members,

In the current uncertain economic climate, the first G20 Trade and 
Investment Promotion Summit has sought to tackle uncertainty head-on by 
enhancing trade and investment promotion strategies and policy advocacy in 
order to benefit from global value chains, while ensuring sustainable and 
inclusive development. 

The Summit, which took place in Mexico City on 5 and 6 November, brought 
together trade promotion organizations and investment promotion agencies 
from 18 members of the G20. Representatives from UNCTAD, the International 
Trade Centre (ITC), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and 
Development, and the World Trade Organization, as well as leading 
corporate executives (the B20), also actively participated in the event. 

The emergence of a new global economic landscape has been characterized by 
the evolution of global value chains in terms of their scope, scale and 
depth. At the same time, economic policy has increasingly been shifting 
towards a more inclusive and sustainable development agenda, which calls 
for a new generation of strategies and practices in the areas of trade and 
investment promotion. 

The G20 meeting examined some of these emerging trends and challenges, 
recognizing that trade and investment are inextricably intertwined today 
through global value chains, and that trade and investment policies need 
to be coherent and mutually reinforcing. The discussion focused on how 
promotion agencies can facilitate, in practical terms, their country’s 
access to global value chains, and also on how to maximize the development 
benefits of international production and trade. 

Participants at the meeting focused on the synergies between trade and 
investment promotion, support for building the supply capacity of small 
and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and SMEs’ linkages with global 
companies. Participants agreed to establish a platform for the regular 
exchange of experiences and good practices in trade-investment promotion 
and policy advocacy. They also discussed synergies between the G20 process 
on the one hand, and ITC's World Export Development Forum and UNCTAD’s 
World Investment Forum on the other. 

At the request of the Mexican Presidency, UNCTAD provided substantive 
backstopping to this G20 process. UNCTAD helped with the conceptualization 
of the event, prepared an issues paper on global value chains and 
trade/investment promotion, facilitated discussions by delivering a 
keynote speech at the opening plenary as well as lead presentations for 
two of the three round tables, and assisted in formulating the summary 
outcomes. 

James Zhan 
Director 
Investment & Enterprise Division 
United Nations Conference on Trade & Development 
Palais des Nations, Geneva 
Tel: +41 22 9175797 
www.unctad.org/diae 
Twitter: @unctadwif


WIR