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| International Trade and Relations |
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IKED intermittently provides comments on the breakdown of the multilateral trade system, the situation of the Middle East and other regions – developing and developed - and the linkages through which seemingly unrelated developments hinge together.
The issue how to pave the way for more productive and widespread use of ICT is at the top of the agenda for many countries around the world, including for the poorest of societies in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This is also an area in which countries are looking for international cooperation involving all the key actors - governments, businesses, local communities, NGOs, international organisations - as a means to find viable ways forward. Development assistance remains very important, and can be the key for funding needed infrastructure or for facilitating training programmes, but real progress requires room for bottom-up initiative and genuine buy-in from multiple stakeholders.
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| IKED projects related to FDI |
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IKED is engaged in several projects and studies on the effects of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on recipient countries, and how they relate to domestic innovation capacity. The focus of this work is primarily directed to understanding the interplay between domestic institutions, competencies and resources, and the role played by FDI in national economies. Around the world, local conditions and policies are evolving, but still lag the faster shifts in international competition and strategies of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs).
Among recent projects, IKED prepared a study on behalf of the Invest in Sweden Agency (ISA), mapping international trends and the emerging issues from the perspective of the Swedish economy. The study examines the evolving situation in Sweden and its international investment flows, and draws lessons for policy on that basis. Sweden is one of the most internationalised countries in the world, both in terms of inward and outward FDI, has among the best data on FDI and MNE-behaviour and displays a combination of great industrial and technological strengths coupled with an apparent inability to grasp its full potential for economic growth. As part of the study, new data is presented on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It is shown that technological change and intensifying competition bring increasingly dramatic challenges for such firms, requiring attention from policymakers. In parallel with this work, IKED is engaged in dialogue and project work on similar issues with a range of other countries. Among other activities, IKED has co-ordinated and put together an innovation chapter in an investment policy review of Morocco, undertaken under the stewardship of UNCTAD. This and other related studies were completed and submitted in the fall of 2006.
| Contributions by IKED to the development of a Global Trust Center |
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The Global Trust Center represents a significant international agenda to address key problems plaguing the digital world as regards security, authentication and the integrity of the individual user. In short, the GTC aims to put in place the prerequisites for a user-centric framework that allows for seamless transition between the real and the digital worlds and for the status of the individual human being to be reaffirmed. IKED and its associated experts have contributed actively to the advancement of this agenda. Over the past years, IKED participated in several international conferences and gatherings where public, private and civil stakeholders advanced on the preparation of new approaches. IKED also played the role of serving as secretariat for the finalization of the feasibility study "Enabling trust in the digital world", which examined the opportunities and viability of a launch of a fully-fledged Global Trust Center (GTC). The GTC was established as an independent international organisation in the fall 2006.
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