Muhammad Zahid Rifat
What will be the effects of trends such as regionalization and digitalization on logistics and global trade?
Hartmann, Professor For Sustain ability Management, Wiesbaden, Germany, says in this regard: The effects of the trends strongly differ and do not effect. all industries equally. In some cases, digitalization replaces the physical flow of goods by digital flows e.g. films, games, books, magazines. Relatedly the emergence of online platforms such as Upwork, Amazon’s, MTuck, Slack, Skype and others enable a digital market for talent and team work across the globe. These effects of digitalization will lead to less transportation. E- Commerce in contrast will most likely increase transportation as it generates new demand for physical goods and services (consider Ebay Amazon, or Alibaba).
P POC
Regionalization Le giving preference to products and services produced locally is a trend we currently observe in the food industry and a few others. This trend certainly has the potential to reduce transport, This is what Professor Dr Julia
However, when designing policies and regulations that shall encourage Regionalization across variety of industries, we need to be careful. Such GHG regulations are designed with the best intentions and targeted at solving one problem. However, they may unexpectedly cause another problem.
Consider the fashion and apparel industry. Fashion companies heavily i rely on fabrics and finished items produced in Asia (China, Bangladesh and so forth). It is possible to shift their production to other countries that are closer to the point of sale. For instance, for most European countries, Eastern Europe would probably be a geographically nearer target market. However, this would imply that
goods that are currently shipped using large container vessels that can carry up to 28000 containers will then need to be transported using inland waterways, rail or road. Inland water ways require small vessels. One train an carry 50 containers and one truck only one. Hence, if trade volumes remain constant, chances are that emissions from transport increase rather than decrease because of lower batch size and associated increased transport frequencies despite shorter distances. Not to speak available capacities for within continent transport…
Regionalization is the tendency to form decentralized regions. Region or land classification can be observed in various disciplines.
Digitalization is the process of converting information into a digital format. The result is the representation of a n object, image, sound or signal obtained by generating a series of numbers that describe a discrete set of points or supplies.
Digitalization is the use of digital technologies to change and business model and provide new revenue and values producing opportunities. It is the process of moving to a digital business.
As for building capabilities for sustainable growth viz a viz Pakistan is concerned, building capabilities is the key to sustaining economic growth and development. It requires sufficient investment in the sectors of information and telecommunication technologies (ICT), youth and skill development, science and technology, higher education and institutional reforms and governance.
Pakistan needs to improve its productivity growth, increase the skill levels of its workforce and consequently move towards better living standard for its people. These multifarious challenges could only be addressed by widespread adoption of technology.
Sectoral unemployment is the main capability issue pertaining to youth that needs to be addressed. The reforms in technical, vocational education and training sector led to the adoption of National TVET Policy through National Vocational Qualification Framework and upgrading the Competency based Training and Assessment. However, the skill gap for some trades and geographic regions still exists which are being addressed through up-gradation of existing TVETs and establishment of new TVETs in less developed districts.
Second main issue of the sector is gender equity. To exploit the full potential of youth, gender wise equity in terms of female contribution is also being mainstreamed in the TVEIS skills development programs.
Science and Technology sector has vast potential to improve the standard of living of general populace as investment in this sector offers numerous cross-sector linkages, ventures in other sectors of socio- economic importance. Building knowledge economy architecture requires investment in human resource development in Science & Technology sector in order to make Pakistani products competitive in the international markets. The federal government is committed to supporting development of knowledge economy based on three main vehicles.
access, quality and relevance to eco nomic development. Although access to higher education has increased, yet Pakistan legs behind comparable countries in this respect. The other two objectives namely quality and relevance also improvement. need significant
Governance refers to the process of and structures that are designed to ensure rule of law, accountability, transparency, responsiveness, stability, equity and inclusiveness, empowerment and broad-based participation. The incumbent federal government is cognizant of the importance of improving governance as a key enabler of effective service delivery, successful outcomes of various public policies that are critical for sustainable economic growth and development.