TradeTech:Catalysing InnovationI N S I G H T R E P O R TJ A N U A R Y 2 0 2 4Supported by the Ministry of Economy of the United Arab Emirates and Abu Dhabi Department of Economic DevelopmentImages: Getty Images, MidJourneyIn collaboration with IBM Corporation© 2024 World Economic Forum. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system.Disclaimer This document is published by the World Economic Forum as a contribution to a project, insight area or interaction. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed herein are a result of a collaborative process facilitated and endorsed by the World Economic Forum but whose results do not necessarily represent the views of the World Economic Forum, nor the entirety of its Members, Partners, or other stakeholders.ContentsForeword 3Executive summary 41 The path to TradeTech 52 Regulation and business-to-government relationships 92.1 Future public-private collaboration 113 Logistics information sharing 123.1 Future logistics information 144 Trade finance 154.1 Future trade finance 175 Supply chain sustainability 185.1 Future sustainable supply chains 196 Realizing the TradeTech vision 20Contributors 23Endnotes 24TradeTech: Catalysing Innovation2ForewordGenerative AI shocked the world. What would TradeTech need to do to similarly grab the world’s attention?How about if it decided what to trade? How to trade? With whom?What if technology autonomously financed that trade? Manufactured products and moved them itself? And did so faster, quicker, and more cost-effective than ever before?That is not the future. It is the present.Yet trade still has one foot in the past. Robots are doing paperwork. Drones need rubber stamps.The TradeTech initiative is about stepping both feet into the future. Human creativity is needed. Trade is global but is also for the individual. Enveloping trade in a sea of information swells a tidal change in environmental and social performance, all along the supply chain.Mastering trade information generates unprecedented efficiency and accuracy and even uncanny predictive power. Trade-as-a-service democratises trade.The United Arab Emirates, a steeped in ambition and non-stop innovation country, has been chosen as the dynamic hub for this endeavour. But the effort is global – trade’s future evolution demands a sense of collaboration, common ownership, and joint endeavour from the furthest reaches of the globe.Traders and technologists, investors and logisticians, policy makers, and entrepreneurs – all are coming together to hurtle the trade ecosystem into a new era.Join us!Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi Chairman, Abu Dhabi Department of Economic DevelopmentBørge Brende President, World Economic ForumThani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi Minister of State f...
