Connectivity

Economies are complex production systems with myriad subcomponent production systems—that is, industries—from manufacturing to health care to retail. What and how these production systems produce is grounded in technology. So, as technologies change, production systems change—around the world. Today, the most important and widely shared technologies are digital information technologies that have evolved from the mainframe and mini-computing systems of the 1960s and 70s. They include an array of personal computing devices, back-office servers, IT-embedded machines, and cloud-based services that are connected or dynamically provisioned to users over private networks or the Internet. But the world is now beginning to transform into a new kind of digital system, one that will not only build on existing devices and systems, but also increasingly will incorporate emerging technologies such as sensors, robotics, and artificial intelligence as they improve in price and performance. This next digital economy will be significantly more connected (with many more things, and many more types of things networked, including in more advanced wireless, satellite, and wireline networks), more automated (as devices and systems enable more work to be done by machines), and smarter (as algorithms play increasingly important roles in sensing—and making sense of—all this).

Disruptive technologies—such as the Internet of Things, robotics, and three-dimensional (3D) printing—have been heralded as the future of the global manufacturing sector. However, in Africa, they could hinder industrialization and result in fewer entry points into global supply chains. While it may be possible for African nations to “leapfrog” directly to newer technologies, it is more likely that developing the relevant worker know-how, infrastructure, and corporate capabilities necessary to leverage the potential value of these technologies will be a very gradual process. African policy makers must therefore pursue multipronged strategies to ensure relevance as 3D printing and other disruptive technologies move into the mainstream.

This is the sixth edition of the Aid for Trade at a Glance publication. Since 2007, successive editions of this flagship publication have shed light on the steps being taken by developing country governments and their development partners to leverage trade for development. The 2017 edition adds further weight to the already substantial body of evidence highlighting the effectiveness of aid for trade. It focuses on how and why trade connectivity is critical for inclusiveness, sustainable growth and poverty reduction. It is intended to inform both practice and policy regarding aid for trade’s contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Cities matter to the UK’s future. They are already concentrations of population and employment, and will be home to much of the country’s future population and economic growth. Cities are centres of commercial, cultural, institutional, and socia life. In short, they are both central to the shaping and delivery of national policy objectives, and the locations where broad social, environmental and economic changes play out in practice.
UK cities are highly diverse, each with a distinctive history and its own set of relationships with its neighbours and with central government.
This Foresight project has developed a broad evidence base and consulted local actors to understand challenges and opportunities from those most experienced in the issues affecting UK cities. The single theme which runs throughout this work is providing the best possible evidence for national and city level decision-makers.

Connectivity is the high-level framework toward which many APEC work streams will focus their efforts. The Blueprint is a strategic guide for current and future initiatives that will bring the APEC region closer together to strengthen economic integration. Connectivity is an ambitious target for a diverse regional organization such as APEC, but it is precisely that ambition that will drive strong and tangible achievements. Connectivity will be important not only for governments and businesses, but also for the APEC community as a whole. By connecting APEC’s developed and emerging growth centers, the region’s quality of growth will improve, contributing to the Asia-Pacific’s economic prosperity and resilience.
The Blueprint contains existing connectivity-related initiatives, encourages reviving those initiatives that require further progress, and proposes creating future initiatives to lead APEC progress. The Blueprint is also broad in scope and adaptable to the ever-changing conditions in the Asia-Pacific.