At this lunch event (a bento box will be served), Chris Clague, Senior Editor in Thought Leadership at The Economist Intelligence Unit, one of the world’s most storied research firms, will explain common misperceptions about the depth and breadth of globalisation, why it will be hard to roll back, and what it will look like in the future.
Globalisation is basically the free flow of goods, services, capital, ideas, and people. As such, it has brought great benefits to MNCs like Google and Toyota, countries like China, Japan, South Korea, and cities like London, Hong Kong and Singapore. Yet certain aspects of globalization have also caused populist alienation in countries like the UK, France, Holland, Germany and Japan.And not all companies like globalization, especially domestic SMEs. Further, many provincial cities have suffered as resources became concentrated in national capitals. Think Osaka, Birmingham, Leipzig, Roubaix etc.
To the extent that globalisation has caused disruptions to the labour market, its impact is often overstated for the sake of simplicity. The reality is far more complex and involves difficult discussions about the influence of technology and, in particular, automation.
Technologies such as automation, robotics, big data and artificial intelligence have a paradoxical effect. Although they do usually require fewer workers, they also permit “re-shoring”, possibly to the detriment of countries like India and the Philippines, where cheap labour has enabled outsourcing of MNC back office functions.
Chris will also evaluate the popular term “glocalization”, which suggests MNCs will have to become far more local to succeed. He argues this may be possible with simple goods, but not with say, building airliners. Aircraft technologies have to rely on a handful of global firms and require global scale. These companies will remain global.
Yet globalization may struggle to deepen. Conventional free trade agreements have reached their limit as far as tariff reduction is concerned. Anything more ambitious, such as TPP, is probably doomed to fail. Tax on capital flows are now not unlikely and immigration has become problematic.
And of course the US under Trump is pulling back. China’s has a fundamentally mercantilist approach to the global order and will hardly fill the space left by the US.
Join us for what will surely be a fascinating session on one of the most essential topics of the past decade.
Speaker: Chris Clague, Senior Editor, Thought Leadership, The EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit).
Moderator: Dan Slater, director, The Delphi Network
Date: April 20 12-1.30pm
Location:Kyobashi TD Bldg. 7F 1-2-5 Kyobashi,
Chuo-Ku, Tokyo 104-0031, JAPAN
T:03-3274-3807
F:03-3272-2245
www.okunolaw.com
FeeY5,000 and Y3,000 for DN members Please pay cash and bring correct change if possible. A receipt will be provided. A bento box lunch will be served.
Kind regards,
Dan Slater, director, The Delphi Network
www.thedelphinetwork.com
M: +81 80 205 70 609
