The milestone is an encouraging sign and a clarion call for greater efforts to help ensure that digital trade benefits all for inclusive development.
© Shutterstock/Ground Picture | Cross-border trade in digital services like live streaming is growing at a dynamic rate, but there’s still much to do to expand its reach worldwide.
A historic first, developing economies in 2023 crossed the trillion-dollar mark in their exports of digitally deliverable services, according to new data released by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
That same year, global exports of digitally deliverable services totaled $4.5 trillion.
Such services can be delivered remotely over computer networks. Some examples include information technology consulting, creative industries, telecommunications and financial services.
While digital technologies have the potential to transform global services trade, their benefits remain unevenly distributed.
UNCTAD data show that while digitally deliverable services account for 56% of services exports worldwide, that share is just 20% in least developed countries (LDCs).
Despite a 43% increase between 2015 and 2023 in value terms, LDCs’ share of global digitally deliverable services exports steadily fell from 0.24% to 0.19%.
“The decline reflects not only persistent challenges facing LDCs related to infrastructure, digital skills gap and restricted markets access, but also systemic inequalities that continue to stymie progress,” says Torbjörn Fredriksson, head of the e-commerce and digital economy programme at UN Trade and Development.
“Without targeted interventions, the digital economy risks entrenching existing inequalities rather than alleviating them.”
Harnessing better data for inclusive digital growth
As part of its broader work to foster inclusive digital trade, UNCTAD supports the development of international guidelines to quantify e-commerce, aimed at helping inform evidence-based policymaking, particularly in developing countries.
The fifth meeting of the organization’s working group on measuring e-commerce and the digital economy, set for 11 and 12 December, will continue advancing global cooperation to better measure digital trade.
The two-day event will bring together international organizations, researchers, businesses and civil society representatives.
Discussions will centre around capacity building and ways to enhance the availability, quality, comparability, usability and relevance of digital trade statistics.
The Global Digital Compact in action
The landmark Global Digital Compact adopted by world leaders at the United Nations Summit of the Future places inclusivity, fairness and sustainability at the core of digital transformation, reinvigorating the international community’s commitment to building a more equitable digital economy leaving no one behind.
The Compact’s objectives — ranging from bridging the digital divide and enhancing data governance to fostering inclusivity — closely align with UNCTAD’s mission to leverage trade, technology and innovation as drivers of sustainable development.
The organization underscores the need for more coordinated global action and targeted investments in infrastructure, education and policy reform to implement the Compact.
Shaping an inclusive digital economy
UNCTAD has long been at the forefront of identifying opportunities and challenges stemming from a changing technological landscape, translating its expertise into actionable trade and development strategies that empower developing countries to engage in, and benefit from, e-commerce and the digital economy.
The UNCTAD-led eTrade for All initiative, launched in 2016, aims to improve the capabilities of developing economies, particularly LDCs, to benefit from the digital boom.
Through tailored assistance, the initiative, operating in partnership with 35 international organizations, helps countries craft robust policies, enhance infrastructure and tackle obstacles to an enabling environment for e-commerce and digital trade.