Session 2: Scaling support for trade in services for development
Services are the fastest-growing segment of global trade. Over the past decade, services exports expanded at 5.3% a year – more than twice the pace of goods. They now account for 27% of global trade. And within services, digitally deliverable exports are growing at over 7% annually.
But there is a common challenge to tap the opportunities of services trade: data. Without reliable and detailed data, countries struggle to design effective policies. Many pointed to gaps in understanding:
- Who is trading services, what is being traded and how
- How services support competitiveness and goods exports
- Who benefits the most from services trade
To use services and digitalization as engines of diversification and structural change, participants called for practical tools, experience sharing and training. UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) offers several such tools, such as the Trade-in-Services Statistics Information System (TiSSTAT), tools to measure digital trade and platforms to exchange. These tools are the fruit of collaborations with many agencies present in this session.
And they are the response to the requests of our member States. Their requests are reflected in the Geneva Consensus – the outcome document of our ministerial conference held in October. Ministers highlighted two priorities: Improving data collection, access and use.
And developing services-led export and competitiveness strategies.
These priorities will guide our work in the period ahead. To implement this mandate, partnerships are crucial. We look forward to working with World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the OECD, and other partners and donors to help countries unlock the full development potential of services trade.
Let me focus on a critical issue –the huge gaps in services trade and the ways we could collaborate to close them.
In developed economies, 61% of services exports are delivered digitally. In the least developed countries, the figure is 16%. That four-to-one ratio tells us something important: the countries that most need diversification are the ones least equipped to benefit from the fastest-growing trade flows.
The consequences are concrete. Least developed countries (LDCs) hold less than 1% of world services trade. Global trade in high-value business services — research, consulting, engineering — exceeded $2 trillion last year. LDCs captured 0.4% of it. That means talented young people in Cameroon, in Bangladesh, in Rwanda have fewer pathways to connect their skills to global demand.
So how do we close these gaps? I see three areas where our institutions can deepen cooperation.
First, joint work on data. You cannot design a services trade strategy if you do not know what you are trading.
UNCTAD's Trade-in-Services Statistics Information System helps countries collect and compile services data. The World Bank brings country-level diagnostic capacity. The WTO brings the regulatory framework. If we combine these strengths into coordinated country programmes – rather than parallel workstreams – we multiply impact without multiplying cost.
Second, analytical tools that translate data into strategy. Our Primer on Trade in Services and Development helps countries identify where their comparative advantages lie and how to move from low-value to higher-value services activities. Our Least Developed Countries Report, published just last month, maps the specific sectors where LDCs can gain ground. These tools become far more powerful when they feed directly into TS4D's capacity-building programmes on the ground.
Third, platforms for peer learning. UNCTAD's Global Services Forum and our expert meetings on trade, services and development give countries spaces to exchange what works – and what does not. We should open these platforms more systematically to TS4D beneficiary countries, so that the lessons generated here reach the policymakers who need them most.
The TS4D Initiative works because it is practical and demand-driven. UNCTAD is committed to scaling this partnership – because a 16% digital services share in the world's poorest countries is not a ceiling. It is a starting point.
I thank you.