Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) and Folks Center for International Business at the University of South Carolina co-sponsored a workshop in Geneva, Switzerland, May 9-10, 2024. The program entitled “Rethinking Institutions of Development: Transformation of Quality Infrastructure” was organized by Gerald McDermott of University of South Carolina; Richard Doner of Emory University; Carlo Pietrobelli of UNU-MERIT and Roma Tre University; and Antonio Vezzani of UNCTAD.
The goal of this inaugural workshop was to advance the understanding of quality infrastructure (QI) beyond an emphasis on QI’s general importance for issues such as trade, investment, and development. The larger venture attempts to recast core issues of technological upgrading and global value chains for emerging market firms.
We are building a unique network of “thinking doers and doing thinkers,” including top academics, former government ministers, and key leaders from the International Trade Centre (ITC), United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). As noted by Hernan Manson, the head of Inclusive Agribusiness Systems at the International Trade Centre, “Building a working group of ‘Thinking Doers and Doing Thinkers’ and the quest to co-create, test and showcase impact driven partnership ecosystems for improved MSME and value chain competitiveness comes at the right time. Quality, Sustainability and Business are intertwined and must be addressed systemically and holistically – if we are to respond to the broader Environmental, Economic and Social challenges and opportunities associated with trade and inclusive development. At the ITC. we welcome the collaboration with academia, peers and colleagues and are ready to play our part.‘’
SC CIBER and the Folks Center will collaborate with Brown University to convene the second workshop in Spring 2025. Brown University Professor Andrew Schrank emphasized: “The Geneva workshop was a huge success. Thanks to CIBER and the Folks Center we were able to bring together key stakeholders from around the world to rethink quality and how to achieve it. We’re looking forward to next year’s event at Brown, where we’ll build on this success and catalyze the quality network for the challenges ahead.”