Shaping Innovative Societies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The World Economic Forum’s 12th Annual Meeting of the New Champions took place on 18-20 September in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China. Convening under the theme, Shaping Innovative Societies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, more than 2,500 business leaders, policy-makers and experts from over 111 countries explored more than 200 sessions over the three days of the meeting.

In the 12 years since the Annual Meeting of the New Champions was first held in China, the country has doubled its GDP, lifting millions of people out of poverty. At the heart of the challenge as we move forward into the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the question of how to reconcile the drive to harness new technology and ensure that robust growth and prosperity develops in a way that serves all of society. Education, reskilling and government willingness to incentivize the private sector are key factors in adapting to this fast-transforming environment.

Highlights and tangible outcomes from the meeting include:

The Forum announced it would open a Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Beijing, becoming the third centre in its global network. The centre will collaborate on common issues and join projects with its other centres in San Francisco and Tokyo.
The Forum announced that it will partner with the UK government to develop the first artificial intelligence procurement policy.
The Forum formally launched a new community of Lighthouses – super-advanced factories of the future that have agreed to open their doors and help peers in industry master the complexities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The Forum launched a Chinese version of its strategic intelligence tool, the Transformation Maps, to encourage multistakeholder collaboration on some of the world’s key issues and challenges.
The first set of “Green Investment Principles” was jointly drafted by the Forum, the Green Finance Committee of China Society for Finance and the Banking and the Green Finance Initiative of the City of London. Work has begun to mobilize business support to promote and implement these principles.
A project to address the issue of global energy poverty has been launched. The project will be led by China’s State Grid on the Forum’s platform.
A new global multistakeholder effort will accelerate the impact of the internet of things (IoT) by making it easier for businesses and governments to procure and deploy solutions.
A consensus was reached among government and private-sector leaders on a global agile governance framework to help cities prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
A model was established for a body of global councils on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. These councils will convene their first meeting at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in January.

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Read the meeting report for more information.

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