(Geneva, Switzerland) Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton delivered opening remarks at a panel presenting ITC’s flagship publication, the SME Competitive Outlook, during the WTO’s Public Forum.

Tomas Lamanauskas, Deputy Secretary-General of the ITU; Lucas Vinicius Sversut, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the World Trade Organization and other Economic Organizations in Geneva; Barbara Ramos, Chief of Strategies and Policies for Trade and Investment at ITC; ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests: good afternoon and welcome.

I want to begin my remarks with a whistlestop tour of some recent headlines from the world of tech—headlines that show both some of the exciting possibilities these offer, but also the risks.

In Texas, some construction entrepreneurs now argue that 3D printed homes could be the solution not just to housing shortages but to the devastation that hurricanes and other natural disasters wreak on communities, year on year.

In the Middle East and Asia, we saw the frustration last week when cable cuts in the Red Sea slowed down users’ ability to access Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing services—driving home just how much people relied on them.

And in France, we’ve read about how some news publishers have inked agreements with trade unions to ensure that journalists earn some of the revenue from their newsroom’s AI licensing deals—compensating them, in effect, for when their IP is used to train some of these new AI tools. 

Wherever you land in the debate—whether you feel that AI is a friend or a foe, whether you fear that 3D printing will put companies out of business or will be their ticket to new revenue-generating opportunities—one thing is clear.

Like it or not, these technologies are here to stay. 

And it is up to everyone to make the most of these technologies’ capacity for good and limit their ability to harm.

For small and medium-sized enterprises around the world, these technologies hold extraordinary promise for their ability to boost sales, cut costs, tackle inefficiencies, and transform how they work and what they can offer.

But not all SMEs are benefitting equally. 

And if we don’t work together to do something about that now, then the gaps between the digital haves and have nots will become an ever-widening gulf—one that will limit not just their business prospects, but our collective ability to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time, such as climate change and inequality. 

That’s why we’re here to present you with the latest edition of our flagship research report, the SME Competitiveness Outlook, which sets out a digital transformation action plan for decision makers so that no one is left behind by this wave of technological change.

It also introduces a new Enterprise Digital Transformation Index—the first of its kind—to measure how well firms are taking on new technologies and what may be limiting their full potential.

Throughout this session, you’ll be hearing from our expert panel and from some of the SMEs we work with who are developing innovative ways to use these technologies in their businesses—often against the odds.

And what I hope you take away from their interventions—both their success stories and their struggles—is this. 

That a technological wave of this scale and scope demands collaboration, within and across countries. No one can go it alone. 

And this goes far beyond ensuring the interoperability of regulations or harmonizing standards.

It’s about learning from one another and finding solutions together, even when politics and geopolitics may suggest that a way forward isn’t possible.

We at ITC felt so strongly about this that when we held the first Global SME Ministerial Meeting in Johannesburg in July, together with the government of South Africa, we asked ministers to consider the digital transformation of SMEs as one of their three thematic tracks.

And they delivered. 

They gave one example after the next of digital tools and platforms that were levelling the playing field among SMEs in their countries, and of regulatory innovations their governments had put in place to help. 

And throughout the event, ministers showed repeatedly that when firms in their countries were able to digitally transform, it had implications not just for those SMEs’ opportunities to grow and trade, but their ability to serve their communities.

By the time the ministerial meeting ended, over 60 governments had endorsed by consensus a call to action that would guide their efforts to ensure more SMEs can benefit from affordable and reliable digital infrastructure and connectivity, improved digital skills and talent, and a more supportive regulatory environment over the next two years.

And we at ITC will be working with them to achieve those goals—and, I hope, working with you. Thank you.