Global Forum on Productivity – 2017 Annual Conference: Openness, Global Value Chains and Productivity-Enhancing Policies 26-27 June, Budapest, Hungary | WPN World People News

Global value chains (GVCs) have become a critical feature of the global economy, influencing unprecedented changes in trading patterns, regional integration and productivity. Public policy can play a critical role as countries seek to derive the potential productivity benefits from participation in GVCs and ensure that these gains are widely distributed across the economy, and to all citizens.

These issues will be central to discussions during the 2017 Conference of the Global Forum on Productivity, which will be organised by the OECD and the Government of Hungary on 26-27 June in Budapest. The Conference will bring together senior policy-makers, experts and academics to address some of the most pressing questions on the GVC-productivity theme, including:

• What are the actual productivity effects stemming from GVCs?
• What are the productivity consequences of the changing structure of GVCs?
• How can policy actions improve the productivity spill-overs to domestic firms?
• How do changes in globalisation, digitisation and regional integration impact supply chains, and how should policymakers react?
• What can be done to ensure that productivity gains from participation in global networks are widely distributed across the economy?
• How can productivity-enhancing institutions address the challenges raised by the expansion of GVCs?

The event launches with an Opening Ceremony featuring OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría and Mihály Varga, Minister for National Economy of Hungary.

This will be followed by a public dialogue between OECD Chief Economist Catherine L. Mann and Karolina Ekholm, State Secretary to Sweden’s Minister for Finance, who will discuss in detail the links between trade, GVCs and productivity.

The morning will be concluded by a panel discussion on “The Benefits from Openness and GVCs for All” featuring: Manuel Caldeira Cabral, Minister of Economy, Portugal; Peter Kažimír, Minister of Finance, Slovak Republic; Mihály Varga, Hungary; as well as representatives from the German Ministry of Finance, the World Bank, the European Commission and the European University Institute of Florence.

Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development