Forum on Globalization and Industrialization

The Forum on Globalization and Industrialization (FGI), which has been a UNIDO flagship event since 2016, is jointly organized with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the Kiel Centre for Globalization. Yearly, it has been bringing together policymakers, representatives of international organizations, academia, and practitioners from the private sector.

The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly impacted global production networks. It has brought to the forefront a sense of urgency for governments and internationally operating enterprises to re-evaluate their approaches towards ensuring resilience and sustainability in their supply chains. This seismic event offers the opportunity to re-think established approaches, and embrace sustainability as a core value creator, but also link long-term recovery strategies to the guiding principles and objectives of the UN Agenda 2030.

The COVID-19 pandemic is putting our understanding and approach to globalization to the test. The cumulative effect of supply bottlenecks and falling consumer demand coupled with increasing calls for domestic production of (essential) goods is challenging the existing global architecture of production, trade and investment flows.