World Internet Conference helps shape global common future: Klaus Schwab

HANGZHOU - The Second World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit will help shape a better common future for the world and China can play a leading role in the Internet-based Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum founder and executive chair Klaus Schwab said on Wednesday.

"The World Internet Conference is important [as we] all have a shared responsibility to harness the enormous potential of innovation for the benefit of global society as a whole," Schwab said during the opening ceremony of the China-initiated summit.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, is the convergence of smart technology including artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing, nanotechnology, materials science, energy storage and quantum science, with the Internet. It is not just about advancing products and services, it is about changing whole systems, according to Schwab.

"No institution, government, business, or system is able to govern the Internet alone [...] we need a networked approach, an enabling platform to develop a globally shared view of how technology is reshaping our economic, social, cultural and human environments," Schwab said.

He pointed out that to ensure that global values, norms and standards keep pace with scientific and technological progress, the world needed ongoing, agile and results-oriented interaction between governments, international organizations and civil society.

"The historic Paris Climate Agreement last weekend actually stipulates [...]the importance of multi-stakeholder cooperation to address global challenges," he added.

The prerequisite of reaping the tremendous benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a harmonious, open global ecosystem with the Internet at its core, according to Schwab.

He said he believed that China, the country with the largest -- and still growing -- number of Internet users, can, and should, take a particularly leading, constructive role in building the global scientific and technological system, as China had done just now in the global climate negotiations.