Role of global value chains highlighted

Global value chains are not retreating but are becoming more digital, more regional, and increasingly shaped by security concerns amid geopolitical tensions, climate pressures and rapid technological change, experts from home and abroad said on Thursday.

This has made global value chains more resilient and indispensable to the functioning of the world economy, they said, calling for more coordinated policies and deeper international cooperation to keep global production networks open and sustainable.

They made the remarks at a forum in Beijing on global value chains hosted by the University of International Business and Economics, which was held both online and offline. The event reviewed shifting global production patterns and released the latest Global Value Chain Development Report.

Speaking via video, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization, said, "Global value chains have not unraveled — they have adapted."

Okonjo-Iweala noted that the value chains have become more digital and responsive to security and sustainability needs, while the agility of firms and "creative policy responses" have helped keep trade growth resilient.

"Contrary to talks of de-globalization, global value chain-related trade slipped only slightly from the peak of 48 percent in 2022 to 46.3 percent in 2024," she said, adding that regions such as Latin America and Africa stand to benefit from new technologies, the green transition and supply-chain diversification.

Robert Koopman, former chief economist of the WTO and editor-in-chief of the newly released report, said that globalization "is not retreating — it is being reshaped". There are growing opportunities in Asia and Latin America, alongside new pathways created by climate-related shifts in supply chains, he said in the report.

New phase

UIBE president Zhao Zhongxiu said globalization has entered a new phase — what the WTO calls "re-globalization" — in which businesses and governments are not retreating inward but actively reshaping global integration around four core objectives: resilience, sustainability, digital transformation and security.

Justin Yifu Lin, former chief economist of the World Bank and dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University, said that economies that aligned policies with their strengths were able to export competitively, grow rapidly and create millions of jobs.

"Global value chains are essential for organizing production according to comparative advantage," Lin said, adding that following such strengths while staying connected through global value chains can support a more inclusive and greener global economy.

Speaking to China Daily on the sidelines of the event, Zhang Xiangchen, deputy director-general of the WTO, said Chinese enterprises expanding abroad are exporting not just products and capital but also technology and innovation, helping accelerate industrialization in developing economies and supporting their climb up the global value chains.

With China contributing about 30 percent of global economic growth, its rising technological strength could lift its global contribution even further, Zhang said.

However, experts have also highlighted some challenges undermining the resilience and inclusiveness of global value chains.

Citing from the report, Koopman noted that industrial policies and trade arrangements are increasingly flexible and issue-specific, making broader access to finance and technology, greater transparency, and more coherent trade policies essential to building a resilient and inclusive global economy. He also emphasized that effective climate action hinges on well-functioning markets and consistent green policies.

Okonjo-Iweala warned of growing policy-driven uncertainty and called for "more innovative approaches" to drive diversification and strengthen systemic resilience.

In light of that, she said the report arrives "at a critical moment for the future of value chains and the global economy".

The Global Value Chain Development Report 2025: The Re-wiring of GVCs in a Changing Global Economy was jointly published by the Asian Development Bank, the Research Institute for Global Value Chains at UIBE, the Institute of Developing Economies — Japan External Trade Organization, the WTO and the World Economic Forum.

Ouyang Shijia and Zhang Chenxu contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at lijing2009@chinadaily.com.cn