The International Trade Centre (ITC) together with the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade of Sri Lanka, through the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB), organizes the global summit.
Ms. Arancha Gonzalez, Executive Director of the ITC will also take the stage on the opening day of the event together with His Excellency, the President of Sri Lanka, to start off the 2-day event.
The first plenary of WEDF 2016 on the topic ‘When Regional Blocs Cross Oceans’, is one of the most anticipated sessions at the forum, with the panel of esteemed speakers consisting of the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat – Patricia Scotland, Dr. Naushad Forbes - the President of the Confederation of Indian Industries, Mr. Khurran Dastgir Khan- Pakistan’s Minister of Commerce, Mr. Mahesh Amalean - Chairman of local apparel powerhouse MAS Holdings and Mr. Tony Nash - the CEO and Chief Economist of Complete Intelligence from Singapore. The panel will be moderated by geopolitical expert Amin Kazmin, Head of Office at the Financial Times Asia.
The session is set to explore research results from the Commonwealth Secretariat on the impact of mega regional blocs on developing countries, and the impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on South Asian nations such as Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan.
The second plenary session will focus heavily on the rapid digitization of trade and ecommerce success stories, with experts on the subject taking the stage as panellists.
Mr. Hongbing Gao - VP of Alibaba Group and Director of AliResearch, Mr. Mano Sekaram –CEO and Co-Founder of award-winning software product engineering company 99X Technology, Mr. Md Sabur Khan – Chairman of Daffodil International University & Daffodil Group, Bangladesh, Mr. Brian Pallas - Chairman & Founder of The Opportunity Network, Italy and Ms. Sally Buberman – CEO of Wormhole IT, Argentina.
Day two of the conference will host the third plenary session titled ‘Standards, a Gateway to Global Markets’, with Mr. Upul Jayasooriya – Chairman of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka, Mr. Jagdish Singla – Director / VP of Nestlé Sri Lanka, Marion Jansen – Chief Economist of the ITC, Dr. Lucian Cernat – ChiefTrade Economist of The European Commission and Mr. Lanre Akinola – Editor of African Business. These acclaimed international economists will present guidance for businesses, policymakers and standard-setters on the impact of standards and regulations for businesses in international value chains.
