UK supports priorities set by India during G20 presidency: British envoy

The UK government fully supports the priorities that have been put out by India under its G20 Presidency, British High Commissioner to Singapore Kars Owen said on Thursday.

Private sector support and inputs are absolutely critical for G20 proposals to make any real impact. Openness to trade and investment is critical for our long-term prosperity, Owen said at the International Outreach Forum of B20 India organised here on "Resilient Supply Chains for Trade and Connectivity".

She affirmed that the UK has developed a supply chain resilience framework that sets out five areas of priority -- diversification, stockpiling and surge capacity, onshoring, demand management, and international partnerships.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as the B20 India Secretariat organised the Forum which deliberated on the next steps for resilient supply chains and discussed how multilateral platforms such as B20 can help to reorganise supply chains with economic efficiency.

Eduardo Pedrosa, Secretary General of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) International Secretariat said: Digitising supply chain management is the most important measure to make supply chain resilience. But even though private investment in the same has doubled, there still exists some resistance.

Dr Amitendu Palit, Member of the B20 India Task Force on Inclusive GVCs for Resilient Global Trade and Investment and Senior Research Fellow and Research Lead (Trade and Economics) at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore said that one of the key priority areas of B20 India is on Inclusive GVCs for Resilient Global Trade and Investment.

Under this priority area, the engagement is focusing on four themes namely, Building Resilient and Sustainable Global Value Chains; Technology and Trade; Advancing Services Trade and finally, Inclusive Trade," stated Dr Palit.

Sumanta Chaudhuri, Principal Adviser -- International Trade Policy, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), noted: Building resilient and sustainable global value chains has never been more important. The lost GDP due to supply chain disruptions is alarming and global coordination is vital for crisis mitigation.

An interactive workshop was held coinciding with this initiative under the aegis of CII and Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore (ISAS-NUS) Trade Connectivity project launched under FCDO's Asia Regional Trade Connectivity programme.

The project was designed to identify and understand supply chains for many critical industries in the Asia Pacific region. The project also closely studied the key issues relating to trade and connectivity, including the geopolitical and geo-economic aspects of regional connectivity, through supply chain dynamics.

The workshop included presentations on the completed reports pertaining to supply chains, connectivity, and institutions in the context of Asia Pacific in partnership with ISAS, Athena Infonomics, Koan Advisory, and IIM Nagpur.

As India holds the Presidency of G20 for 2023, it will host the eighteenth G20 Summit.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as the B20 India Secretariat will coordinate the B20 Summit in August 2023 and is organising about 100 business events with global businesses across the country and the world during the year with the theme of R.A.I.S.E. - Responsible, Accelerated, Innovative, Sustainable and Equitable Businesses'.