The 10th Session Multi-year Expert Meeting on Investment, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Productive Capacity-building and Sustainable Development took place on September 27-28, 2023, in Geneva, Switzerland.

The United Nations Committee on Trade and Development organized the meeting to bring together experts who assessed the recent developments, challenges, and opportunities in sustainable economic diversification. The meeting addressed the following areas:

Diversification of economies in developing countries towards sectors with lower carbon emissions.

Policies, instruments, and institutional reforms are required at the national and international levels to promote more sustainable diversification and innovation.

Miss Joy-Marie King, Director of International Trade, SDGs and UNCTAD Focal Point within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented Antigua and Barbuda at the meeting.

She emphasized the need for small states to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve sustainable economic diversification and innovation.

For instance, SDG 9-Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure aims to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and support innovation. Industrialization positively correlates with SDG progress and has the potential to bridge the digital divide faced by small states due to its high innovation content.

King highlighted the need to design a national industrial policy that is SDG-oriented, supports public-private coordination, is future-ready propelled by digitalization, is context-based, and addresses regional priorities, challenges, and opportunities.