Union of Arab Banks, Union of Arab Chambers and INSME Issue Digital Economy Guidelines with GCEL to Reenergize the Banking Industry and Jump-Start the Global Economy

International organizations releasedTen Digital Economy Guidelinesin alignment with the G20 Leaders policy directives that aim at securing sustainable economic growth.

The Guidelines were adopted by theUnion of Arab Banks(UAB),Union of Arab Chambers(UAC),International Network for SMEs(INSME),and theGlobal Coalition for Efficient Logistics (GCEL)toset the foundation for successfully implementing the Digital Economy.

The Digital Economy has been a key G20 policy directive since 2015.

However, until today, no one has defined the Digital Economy, nor how it can be deployed to rebalance and grow the high, mid and low-income economies.

Following 15 years of R&D on digitizing the global economy, an internationalCoalitionis leading a global economic development program that digitally Jump Starts national economies and their trade partners through a Digital Economy Platform (DEP).

This Coalition involves the public sector representing 75% of the world's citizens. The Coalition will also involve the private sector comprised of the world's leading technology, e-commerce, finance, and insurance firms with USD 1.5 trillion revenues and a 4.7 million workforce.

These organizations will be united to deliver the DEP that maximizes the power of what technology makes possible today to reduce excess trade costs by USD 4.8 trillion, increase goods trade by USD 6.3 trillion, and create more than 400 million jobs by 2030.

Mr Wissam Fattouh,UABSecretary-General, commented on the benefits for the financial industry, The DEP tools will better integrate banks to the B2B marketplace through the use of dynamic, high quality, and validated data.

Our members will have greater transparency to reduce risks, ease regulatory compliance burdens and realize a new USD 7.5 trillion financial services market opportunity by 2030.

This global program transforms the manufacturing, agriculture and services sectors by digitizing the value chains in 6 steps:

1) Create an online digital catalogue of goods and services globally,

2) Optimize matching of buyers with sellers, 3) Increase the conversion ratio from seeing a product or service to the acquisition,

4) Provide digital financing, 5) Secure digital Insurance, and 6) Deliver digital logistics and operations tools for business transactions. Dr Sergio Arzeni,INSMEPresident and former OECD Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, exclaimed:

To ensure global adoption, the DE must be free of cost to the end-users, especially benefiting SMEs, yet sustained by a unique business model.

The program offsets monopolistic and geopolitical concerns by empowering national e-commerce, finance and insurance firms to expand services and realize a new USD 20.5 trillion digital services market opportunity by 2030.

Dr Khaled Hanafy,UACSecretary-General, remarked, The Digital Economy must encompass a global scoring mechanism that enables all users to perform an objective evaluation of performance risk when making business decisions.

Captain Samuel Salloum,GCELChairman, commented that the Digital Economy must be based on a comprehensive solution, The real Digital Economy provides seamlessly integrated commerce, finance, insurance, and logistics/operations verticals, which represent the main pillars of the B2B market place, the mother of all industries.

The Ten Digital Economy Guidelineswere developed to serve as the foundation for any future initiative related to the implementation of the Digital Economy.

The Guidelines followed the completion of theG20 Nations Case Studywith 90 ministries, IGOs/NGOs, academia, and private sector specialists factoring 80% of the global GDP. Nearly 95% of the G20 B2B participants set the digital tools they need to be more ambitious.