Ukraine may be at war, writes Leo Hohmann, but that isn’t stopping it from playing a leading role in the digitisation of the global economy.
In a recent article, Hohmann highlighted the World Economic Forum’s (“WEF’s”) role in fully digitising Ukraine’s citizenry and establishing a Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the country.
Before we get to Hohmann’s article, we have given a brief overview demonstrating how it is not only WEF that is involved in this nefarious plan – it is a global public-private partnership.
In November 2022, UK Member of Parliament and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch met in London with Ukrainian officials to agree on a “ground-breaking digital trade deal” called the Digital Trade Agreement (“DTA”).
The DTA will “deliver greater compatibility and interoperability between digital identity systems in the UK and Ukraine,” according to the UK’s Department of International Trade. In return, the DTA will allow Ukrainians to access financial services.
It’s unclear whether the UK’s digital trade agreements fall under agreements managed by international organisations, such as the World Bank, and the Government website states repeatedly that they are to enhance British trade, i.e., national interests. However, there clearly is a global element to the UK’s digital trade approach:
Building a global network of digital trade agreements
While we continue to build the UK’s network of bilateral and regional agreements, we are also helping to shape the global rules of digital trade in international fora. The UK is actively participating in the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) E-commerce Joint Statement Initiative where over 80 countries are negotiating new rules for the global digital economy. At the same time, under the UK’s G7 Presidency, trade ministers have committed to adopt the G7’s Digital Trade Principles when they meet in October.
Objectives
We will: work with WTO partners to advance new rulemaking on digital trade to ensure that global governance keeps pace with developing technologies …
Since 2016, the World Trade Organisation (“WTO”) has boasted of having 164 countries as its members which taken together cover almost 94% of the world’s population. Officially founded in 1995, the WTO traces its roots to Bretton Woods in 1947. A few years earlier, in 1944, the International Monetary Fund (“IMF”) and the World Bank Group were also created at Bretton Woods. United Nations agencies, the IMF and World Bank have observer status in WTO bodies.
In June 2019, WEF signed a strategic partnership with the UN to execute the UN’s agenda. WEF committed itself to financing Agenda 2030 and working with areas like climate change, health, digital cooperation, gender and education.
In January 2024, WEF and the Ukraine Ministry of Digital Transformation announced a mutual interest in setting up a Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, putting Ukraine at the forefront of the World Bank’s GovTech and digital transformation.
