22.01.2020

4th Industrial Revolution and the Greater Caspian Region

4 th Industrial revolution is the topic being discussed many times and remains urgent nowadays. Although
new technologies and automatization are believed to be a progress, there are some dangerous aspect
and week points in transition to data industry.
The moderator: Martina Fuchs. Speakers: Hans Schwab, Dr. Schekeb Fateh, Dr. Farhan Matoog S. Alfarhan, Kairat Kelimbetov.
Hans Schwab, Co-Founder, CEO, OriginAll, Geneva, Switzerland claims that the movement from previous revolutions to current reality implies both a great amount of opportunities and substantial thread when it comes to artificial intelligence. For the Caspian region it is a fantastic opportunity to accelerate the processes that in the past would take them decades. Hans also points to the fact that the Great Caspian region as well as Saudi Arabia has a tremendous opportunity to move from the oil industry into data industry. The fundamental issue in the topic of the 4th Industrial Revolution is the integrity of data, i.e. how we can protect and generate it. Another issue is the political will which is thought to be the most important key to countries' development and possible changes.

Dr. Schekeb Fateh, Strategic Business Development, Miromico AG, Zurich, Switzerland believes that the 4th industrial revolution has already started. The Caspian Regions is targeting at the revolution in the industry and it is not about producing long term in China, but about bringing the automatization. For future projects the company will cooperate with the same partners, but still is open for new ideas and investors. Money is not the only way of solving the problems, it has much more to do with bringing new technologies to create awareness in the region.

Dr. Farhan Matoog S. Alfarhan, Geopolitical Analysts - Saudi Arabia, Bern, Switzerland says that Saudi Arabia has a great future to achieve and has a similar potential as the Great Caspian region has in powerful natural resources. The country is aimed at reducing gas and oil consumption by investing into modern technologies to produce more sustainable economy. Switzerland is a right partner for other countries for its trust and quality which are major factors for the partnership. Dr Farhan believes that as long there are young people in the country, there is development regardless the poorness or richness of the country. Digitalization is a cross border between different regions, but there could be a problem of regulation abuse. Thus, when we people create digital currency or economy it is vital to prove that this activity is not criminal.

Kairat Kelimbetov, Governor of Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), Kazakhstan mentions the importance of BRI in international connectivity between Chinese and European markets towards Eastern and Western countries. Kazakhstan is a leading economy in Central Asia and the country is trying to prepare business community, society, and economy to new technologies in order to keep up with other countries in technological development. Kazakhstan has recently created a kind of holistic eco system that consists of two subsystems: 1) The traditional Financial Institution 2) Startups Community (Tech community). The country has a special legally regulated regime; it also provides tax preferences to tech companies. To protect any kind of investments Kazakhstan has created the System of Dispute Resolution Authorities which consists of Independent Court and international Arbitration center to secure any transactions and deals.

The moderator: Martina Fuchs. Speakers: Hans Schwab, Dr. Schekeb Fateh, Dr. Farhan Matoog S. Alfarhan, Kairat Kelimbetov.
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