As day three rolled around, I had already learnt so much but was keen to cap off the week with one last full day. Most of the speakers on this day built upon the mains themes of the forum, namely the increasing importance of trade in services (specifically over the internet) to national economies, the need for WTO rules to be updated in light of this and the opportunities for greater economic growth and poverty relief that the digital economy presents, especially for less developed regions in the world.
Some speakers and sessions however decided to focus on different issues. For example, one was exclusively concerned with online information security i.e. what are the present risks, what individuals can do to protect personal and business information from security breaches, as well as a case study in how one multi-national company has introduced a comprehensive product tracking and systems to protect is goods as they’re traded around the world. Breaking away from ideas that had been discussed extensively for the past two days was somewhat refreshing and rounded off the forum well. As the final session came to a close, I felt satisfied that I had got all I could have out of the forum and had met some important and influential people along the way. However, I was looking forward to doing some sightseeing in the time I had left.
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