Yesterday on October 11, 2017, Thomson Reuters organized an event in Washington, D.C. on “Innovative Approaches to Advancing Small & Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) Globally.  It was definitely timely given the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund to have conversation about the role that innovation plays in advancing SMEs.  Moderated by Howard Schneider (Federal Reserve Correspondent), speakers included Dr. Kim Bettcher (Senior Knowledge Manager, Center for International Private Enterprise), Tina Ghanem (Head of SME Business, Global Growth Operations, Thomson Reuters), Dr. Nicole Goldin, President, NRG Advisory & NonResident Senior Advisor, CSIS), David Hartingh (Executive Vice President & CEO, International Executive Service Corps), Dr. Wanda Lopuch (Chair, Board of the Global Sourcing Council), Kathleen Neumann (President and COO, SerenityShares), and Gabriel Thoumi (Director, Capital Markets, Climate Advisors).  ...

Yesterday, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker announced a doubling of the Digital Attaché program.  The program already covers Brazil, China, the European Union, India, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Japan.  The expansion will include South Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Germany, and France.  This is a group of well-chosen countries.  South Korea is the world’s 14th largest economy.  The world’s first free trade agreement to include provisions on data flows is the U.S.-South Korea Agreement (KORUS) – see Article 15.8.  South Korea is also a crucial diplomatic partner for the United States, particularly in standing up for non-discriminatory trading practices throughout Asia and beyond. Indonesia is of course huge.  It is also a very challenging market for U.S. companies in part because of data localization requirements there.  These requirements are so economically significant that the Europ ...

Today, there were two events devoted to Internet governance in Washington, D.C.  The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation organized “Passing the Torch: How will Internet Governance Change in a Post-American World.”  This event included as a panelist Chris Wilson from 21st Century Fox, an SIIA member.   Afterwards, the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee arranged a hearing on “Privatizing the Internet Assigned Number Authority,” which included an all-star cast of witnesses. Why the upsurge in interest?  The March 10 decision by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board to transmit to the U.S. government a set of proposals to transfer to multistakeholder oversight the functioning of Internet’s address system, the Doman Name Server (DNS) system is the reason.  SIIA welcomed that decision.  The proposals are serious, thorough and have been developed through a ...