On June 29 at 11:00 a.m. Moscow time (GMT+3), an online presentation of the Valdai Club report "The World of Platforms: From Corporations to Regions" took place. The discussion was moderated by the co-author of the report, Yaroslav Lisovolik, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club. In his opening remarks, he emphasised that the platform model is now effectively working not only at the corporate level, but also at the level of regional integration, and invited the participants to discuss the trade, investment and business aspects of the platform approach.
Anastasia Stepanova, deputy head of the Business Tourism Development Centre at the Russian-Chinese Chamber for Machinery, Technologies and Innovations, co-author of the report, noted that the contribution of digital platforms to global GDP is constantly growing. According to the consulting firm McKinsey, by 2025 more than 30% of global corporate revenue will come from corporate platforms. The expert listed a number of opportunities, benefits, dividends, as well as risks associated with this process: the concentration of resources in the hands of a narrow circle of players, jobs cuts due to digitalisation, a decrease in personal space, and a threat to personal data security. She considers it desirable to develop new types of platforms based on the unification of integration projects, including regional associations and at the interregional level.
Andy Mok, senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, the third co-author of the report, touched upon the various reasons for the platforms' success. In his opinion, the fact is, that unlike traditional companies, they control the means of acquiring customers rather than the means of production. It remains to be seen whether this approach can be transferred to the level of countries and regional associations. In the case of China, Mok sees a possible instrument in the digital yuan. He believes that in the future, the geo-economic centre of gravity will return to Eurasia. Eurasia is about to return to its central role and the digital yuan can become the cement for Eurasian integration, the economist said.
Andrey Panteleev, Head of the Economic Policy Strategies Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission, shared his experience using the EEC platform approach to respond to pressing global development challenges. According to him, the Eurasian Economic Union itself can be considered as a kind of platform for the formation of stable links between business entities, institutions, and the bodies of national and supranational regulators of the participating countries. At this stage, Panteleev explained, the introduction of the platform approach is aimed to make use of the current format of integration - that is, at the full functioning of a single economic space with simple and uniform rules that allow the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour. This, he believes. should be achieved through end-to-end automated processes and the coordinating role of supranational regulatory bodies.
Andres Serbin, Executive Director of the Argentine Regional Coordination Centre for Social and Economic Research (CRIES), urged the others to go beyond the economy and bring a social dimension to the discussion on the platform approach. The pandemic has accelerated digitalisation and increased inequality, including across countries. As a result, some countries have been deprived of access to digital tools and have essentially become the "pariahs" of the new digital world. He also added that civil society should not be forgotten as a key component of regional integration processes, and that the platform approach should be extended to it and take its interests into account.
