Day 2; a 9.00 a.m start and a most informative morning. The theme for this conference ' The Commonwealth-Business Advantage and Opportunities'. Again, we were honored by the presence of the Premier of Queensland, as well as Baroness Scotland, Lord Marland and the Mayor of the Gold Coast all who spoke. They were joined by keynote speaker Dr Daniel Franklin, Executive Editor of the Economist who gave his publications view of the world and its business climate by 2050. So what have we got to look forward to according to them?
Demography- by 2050 the world population will rise to 9.5 billion with half that number living in Africa. People will live longer having an impact particularly on the healthcare system and pensions. There will be a greater trend to Urbanisation
The Economy-The centre of gravity will shift to between India and the Chinese border. Western Europe and the USA will be in decline with Asia on the rise.
Technology-this will be the next industrial revolution. It will impact upon jobs with the drivers of technology being in biology and physics. We were reminded of a quote by William Gibson “The future is already here, it is just not evenly distributed" Past industrial revolutions shifted jobs and the forthcoming one will do the same. We will see the growth of Bot wranglers used on Aps, Drone technicians, virtual fashion designers, Indoor farms (having farms with no natural light closer to populations),synthetic tissue engineers, fantasy companies, driverless cars, Oyshi farms (synthetic fish from cell cultures), machines which will take over the role of doctors, data banks and chemicals produced from bio technology.
Theme-a whole new world of social change Politics-Democracy and its discontents
So where does the Commonwealth fit into all of this? Well, to quote Dr Franklin, We all know that the Commonwealth is not the answer to everything and not the setter of rules but instead operates by consensus. It is not a huge dispenser of money and has a very disparate geography. Its most visible area is sport. It has soft power rather than hard power but soft power matters.
The Commonwealth is a multi dimensional network with a common language which boosts trade by 2.2 times. Add to that the 'commonwealth effect' it’s a plus plus. Inevitably with Brexit, the Commonwealth has come more to the fore.
The event continued with a panel discussion entitled 'Enhancing the Commonwealth Advantage for Business’. Lord Marland concurred as to the Commonwealths soft power also suggesting it has been at a crossroads as to its existence and that it was imperative that people make a real effort for its continuation. Its common language made it much easier to 'set up shop' overseas; there was a tremendous cross fertilisation of citizens.
The Commonwealth is an enabling organisation for those who want to be part of it. He recognised some of the challenges for business particularly for SME's:- Finding a route to market in an unknown country,Finding business partners and the cost of the venture. Any organisations which can help with these challenges are welcome.
Supporting Lord Marlands comments, Monica Bradley, Director, Purposeful Capital, a venture capital fund providing thought leadership and research to assess game changing ideas for people and their communities, confirmed that "the Commonwealth provides us with an enormous opportunity to be in a club where you can build trust. We live in a society not an economy. Britain is now having a more active focus on the Commonwealth"