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Davos to Focus on 4th Industrial Revolution

Davos to Focus on 4th  Industrial Revolution
Davos to Focus on 4th  Industrial Revolution

Learning how humankind can benefit from the fourth industrial revolution while addressing its challenges will be the central aim of the 46th World Economic Forum annual meeting, WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab said at a press conference.

The meeting, which is to be held from Jan. 20 to 23 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, aims to build a platform for cooperation between public and private sectors, Yahoo reported.

Three key topics will be on the agenda: the global security situation, economic and social development and the goal of sustainable development, and the fourth industrial revolution, which is the theme of this year’s meeting, Schwab said.

“We feel we are not yet prepared sufficiently for this fourth industrial revolution, which will come over us like a tsunami, which will change the whole systems,” said Schwab.

On the basis of this central theme, participants will discuss 10 global challenges including agriculture and food safety, economic growth and social inclusion, the future of the Internet, long-term investment and infrastructure construction.

“The world has become interconnected. It’s not very comfortable to think always in terms of those complexities. The world has a tendency to simplify issues. But we just want to find this simplification which may lead to wrong conclusions and solutions, so our role in Davos, which is very different from what else is happening usually in the world, is to take a systemic approach,” said Schwab.

  N. Korea Snubbed

North Korea on Thursday protested its “unjustifiable” exclusion from the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos, calling it a “sinister act” of compliance with Pyongyang’s political enemies.

North Korea had planned to send a high-level delegation to Davos for the first time in 18 years, but the WEF announced on Wednesday that it was rescinding the invite, following North Korea’s nuclear test last week.

In a letter sent to the WEF managing board, Pyongyang’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva voiced deep concern over such a “sudden and irresponsible” move.

“The behavior of the forum is a very sinister act of defying the elementary impartiality and principles to be abided by an international body,” the North’s official KCNA news agency quoted the letter as saying.

The protest letter noted that the North’s decision to attend this year–with Foreign Minister Ri Su-Yong leading the delegation–had been a response to repeated requests from the WEF.

As a result, the decision to rescind the invite for an “unjustifiable political reason”, was unwarranted and “unbecoming”, it added.

More than 2,500 participants from over 100 countries and regions will be present at the meeting, including more than 40 heads of state and senior government officials, as well as some 1,500 business leaders.

Financialtribune.com