ICC News

18 March 2020 The Geneva Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services will co-organise the 13th World Chambers Congress, the largest global gathering of chambers of commerce. Organised by the International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC)  and its World Chambers Federation (WCF), the World Chambers Congress is a unique thought leadership forum for chamber leaders and business professionals to collaborate on new projects, exchange ideas on best-practices, expand global networks and discuss the latest issues facing the private sector worldwide. Every two years, this global event rotates between Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe to ensure wide and diverse regional participation

17 March 2020 The Secretariat of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and ICC International Centre for ADR have issued an urgent communication to users, arbitrators and other neutrals. This is an urgent communication to ICC dispute resolution users, arbitrators and other neutrals in pending and future ICC Arbitration and ADR proceedings. Over the past two months and as the COVID-19 outbreak continues to unfold worldwide, the safety of our staff and business continuity have been – and remain – our top priorities. In this regard, we wish to advise you of the following: A. Current status All offices of the

16 March 2020 ICC and the World Health Organization (WHO) have announced an unprecedented call to action to mobilise business in the fight against COVID-19. In a joint statement issued today, ICC and WHO announced the agreement to leverage ICC’s global network of over 45 million businesses to enable businesses worldwide to play a full and active role in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak. The collaboration between ICC and the WHO will facilitate information flows by disseminating the latest and most reliable information on the COVID-19 outbreak to businesses “Early, bold and effective action will reduce short-term risks to employees

13 March 2020 ICC has partnered with the New England Complex Systems Institute to develop a round-up of actions businesses can take to reduce the spread and impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. The menu of options for consideration aims to help businesses of any size, in any region, develop or implement business continuity plans depending on geographic location of the business. The free to download document, underscores the key role businesses can play in minimising the likelihood of transmission stating that early, bold and effective action will reduce short-term risks to employees and long-term costs to businesses and the economy. “Prevention

12 March 2020 The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has issued a call for G20 leaders to urgently agree on a comprehensive global action plan to address the escalating COVID-19 outbreak, and restore confidence and stability to the global economy. Following yesterday’s decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) to designate COVID-19 as a global pandemic, ICC believes that coordinated action among the world’s largest economies is urgently needed to boost ongoing efforts to manage the spread of the outbreak – while minimizing the potential social and economic impacts of COVID-19. In an open letter to Saudi King, Salman bin Abdulaziz

4 March 2020 ICC has launched the Digital Trade Standards Initiative (DSI) – a collaborative cross-industry effort to enable the standardisation of digital trade. The ICC Digital Trade Standards Initiative (DSI) will build on work done by various likeminded initiatives, many of which aim to digitise trade, notably through the development of open trade and technology standards to promote interoperability. The ICC DSI will promote greater economic inclusion through the development of open trade standards. This will facilitate technical interoperability among the variety of blockchain-based networks and technology platforms that have entered the trade space over the past two years. “Universal

28 February 2020 ICC Albania in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and with the support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Albania and the Delegation of the European Union to Albania organized the ‘’Week of Integrity in Albania’’ which took place from 3 to 11 February 2020. This first edition of the Week of Integrity was joined by twenty eight partners – that introduced their initiatives focusing on the raising of awareness and promotion of ethical behavior, transparency, accountability, responsible business conduct and any effort in the fight against corruption. A closing Conference was held on 11 February 2020 in

25 February 2020 ICC has published a paper on an issue central to the vitality and growth of the digital economy: liberalisation of global markets in electronic payment services (EPS) and the trade commitments necessary to achieve it. The brief – part of a series by ICC to assist World Trade Organization (WTO) Member States in their plurilateral negotiations in Geneva on the trade-related aspects of e-commerce – is the product of extensive consultation with businesses across a range of sectors participating in or affected by the digital economy. The negotiations, now involving 83 Member States, seek to achieve a high standard

24 February 2020 The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) will support the next generation of entrepreneurs and start-up talents with initiatives provided by the ICC Centre Entrepreneurship. Mr Denton launched the ICC Centre for Entrepreneurship in Istanbul. In the past decade, multilateral trade has been transformed by the emergence of the gig economy, with entrepreneurs, start-ups and venture capitalists congregating in local innovation hubs to develop transformative products and services. Building off its global network of businesses, chambers of commerce, academic institutions, and intergovernmental organisations, ICC has launched the ICC Centre for Entrepreneurship, to connect local entrepreneurs to global markets and

20 February 2020 ICC and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have signed a new Memorandum of Understanding to promote business engagement in UNDP’s flagship SDG Impact initiative. The new partnership aims to leverage ICC’s global network to drive a transformation in how economic growth is generated by ensuring that the private sector has the necessary tools to embed sustainability in corporate decision-making. Experts and industry leaders now widely recognise that a step-change is needed in the level of private sector investment in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—with only a fraction of global assets currently invested in SDG-aligned activities and only