Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Several countries including China, Pakistan, Chile, Cuba, Indonesia and Serbia have jointly proposed the ‘Initiative of International Cooperation on Resilient and Stable Industrial and Supply Chains’, with support by Republic of Argentina.

The initiative aims at strengthening the resilience and stability of global industrial and supply chains which will surely help support economic recovery of all countries, ensure the smooth running of the world economy and improve the wellbeing of humanity.

“We are committed to combining efforts with other countries to build resilient and stable global industrial and supply chains, aiming at a community of shared future for global development to address common risks and challenges,” a joint statement by the countries said.

They expressed endeavor to promote openness and inclusiveness, maintain the rules-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization as the cornerstone, contribute to strengthening the security of global industrial and supply chains, and jointly foster a fair, open and predictable market environment for global specialization and cooperation.

They also expressed commitment to deepen technological innovation and cooperation, focus on the trend of technological development, and encourage businesses in various countries to jointly work on technological cooperation, research and development in every part of innovation and value chains at every level, in a shared effort to promote technological progress and industrial development.

The countries pledged to encourage green production and lifestyle, promote green technologies, processes and products to be applied across the board, and endeavour to jointly build green and low-carbon industrial and supply chains, to address a range of challenges confronting humanity, such as climate change, environmental pollution and resource scarcity.

They vowed to explore opportunities presented by digital economy and technologies, leverage the significant role that the next-generation information technologies are playing in driving industrial upgrading and economic recovery, bolster innovation and application of new technologies, contribute to strengthen cooperation on industrial ecology, strive to accelerate the digitalization, network and intelligence of industries, and reform the mode of production.

The countries expressed determination to promote better use of the planet’s resources by key industries, such as integrated circuits, new energies and biomedicine, and strive to support businesses in coordination and cooperation between the upstream and downstream parts of an industrial chain, in a joint endeavour to ensure sustainable supply in key areas.

They committed to promote logistics infrastructure, endeavour to increase energy efficiency of ports around the world, strive to enhance cross-border rail connectivity and to improve international air freight and delivery logistics, promote capacity expansion and upgrading at borders and ports of entry, and make an effort to address choke points in current logistics and transportation, to ensure logistics and transportation throughout supply chains unimpeded.

They expressed endeavour to reduce cost and increase quality and efficiency for logistics, encourage international logistics businesses to facilitate coordination, promote the interconnection and sharing of international logistics information, contribute to the development and mutual recognition of international standards and rules for logistics and supply chains, and strive to facilitate customs clearance at ports of entry, to ensure efficient operations of supply chains.

The vowed to consider the dominant role of businesses in the market, and encourage countries to take into account new challenges confronting businesses and endeavour to provide targeted policy support and skills training in their respective post-pandemic recovery plans, so as to better integrate themselves into global industrial and supply chains. “We ask all countries to join us in an equitable, inclusive and constructive partnership for industrial and supply chains, in a bid to jointly build a beautiful and prosperous world,” the joint statement concluded.