The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) supports developing countries by facilitating investment and infrastructure development.
It sums its work up in three words: think, debate, deliver.
It is dedicated to helping countries diversify their economies and help local businesses move up the value chain, as well as promote entrepreneurship and innovation.
To that end, it acts as a forum where representatives of all countries can freely engage on trade and economic matters, as well as discuss collaborative strategies on data and technology.
A huge part of UNCTAD’s plans is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which it describes as “a global plan of action for people, planet and prosperity”.
Its Agenda concentrates on four plans of action it requires to carry out its goal of creating a more sustainable global economy.
These are:
- Building productive capacity to transform economies
- Developing better effective states and markets
- Tackling vulnerabilities and building resilience
- Strengthening multilateralism and finding common solutions
Through these actions, UNCTAD aims to achieve 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), as part of the 2030 Agenda.
Each SDG represents a different global challenge, such as ending poverty, achieving gender equality or creating a sustainable balance between global consumption and production.
In September 2018, it backed the publication of a report by the UN Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS) called ‘Voluntary Sustainability Standards, Trade and Sustainable Development’.
The report stated that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) account for an overwhelming majority of the registered businesses in developing economies.
It also examined how voluntary sustainable standards (VSS) are affecting global trade and helping developing countries integrate into the global economy.
UNCTAD will be represented on day 3 of the SPSCT18 Conference in Rotterdam, when Vincent Valentine, International Trade Policy Research and Transport Economics, UNCTAD, will give a presentation on the necessity for quality data generation and the issues around data ownership, trust and predictability.
Read more about what the industry is doing to move towards a sustainable ecsystem with a Port technology technical paper
Speaking at SPSCT18 Session 3 – ‘Smart Data for Next-Gen Ports and Supply Chains: Data Analytics for Performance Maximisation’ – moderated by Yvo Saanen, Commercial Director, TBA – he will present on the value of data as a fuel for global growth, in particular in developing economies and the maritime sector.
Such is the importance for developing economies of ports and terminals integrating the digital supply chain, Valentine’s session is sure to be unmissable.
Following his presentation, he will sit down with other top industry executives to discuss multi-stakeholder integration and the significant benefits of intelligent data analysis.
Other session speakers will include Dirk Jan Peters, Project Director Maritime, Royal HaskoningDHV; Jarno Kuipers, Senior Manager, Terminal Development, Kalmar and Mikael Lind, Senior Strategic Research Advisor, RISE Viktoria.
Valetine will also be moderating the final session Day One ‘Smart Global Trading: Profiling Leading Performance Models’.
Be sure not to miss the October 2-3 Smart Ports and Supply Chain Technologies Conference in Rotterdam, which will bring together top industry leaders and present the latest advancement projects in the sector.
If you would like a unique insight into UNCTAD or the 2030 Agenda you can send Valentine or any of our other speakers a question which will then be answered at SPSCT18 through this link.
Join the conversation at @PortTechnology #SPSC18!
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