Glocalisation: Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Global Value Chains

Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Managing Board, Deutsche Messe AG

Innovation, creativity and necessity remain the driving forces behind the advancement of humanity and the acceleration of global good. The spike in demand for e-learning, seen during the pandemic, has encouraged new waves of education systems that are increasingly innovative, inclusive and sustainable. While digitisation offers opportunities to bridge the educational gap by providing cheaper and more accessible ways to learn, the recent crisis exposed the widening digital divide between developed and developing countries.

• How can 4IR technology achieve prosperity for populations in less developed countries that might be affected by a crisis?
• How can the international community provide support and what tools are needed for this to happen?
• What are the challenges and how can these be overcome?
• How can we bridge the digital gap to enable access to e-learning in developing countries?
• What does this mean for women? And, what are the challenges in educating women in developing countries?

Confirmed Speakers:

• H.E. Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia
• H.E. Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil
• H.R.H. Hussein bin Abdullah II, Crown Prince of Jordan
• H.E. Armen Sarkissian, President of Armenia

The pandemic crisis and its subsequent economic challenges presented a defining moment for companies worldwide. Businesses had the opportunity to emerge stronger and forge deeper relationships with customers and partners in order to build companies that are better adapted to tomorrow’s world. The crisis revealed to be unlike any previous situation, whereby traditional crisis-response approaches were not fit for purpose. As business leaders were thrust into situations requiring swift and effective action to ensure the survival of their organisations, many were left questioning whether their industries would be able to adapt to the new reality.

What can CEOs anticipate in the post-crisis world? With the accelerated adoption of digital commerce as a result of the COVID19 pandemic, will consumers return to traditional retail behavioural patterns, or will the digital migration fundamentally alter the global economy?

• In what is being termed ‘the great retooling’ (changing the infrastructure of a business), how can leading executives revamp their customer propositions and organisations for the long-term?
• Given the contingency plans adopted during the pandemic to ensure production, how can companies capitalise on current learnings in order to better plan for the future?
• What supply chain operational changes have been made and with what new safeguards?
• How have travel patterns changed and what implications does this have for businesses?
• What will be the future role of physical factories and other traditional forms of industrial manufacturing?
• What will business strategies look like in the future? Are we expecting new definitions for resilience, sustainability, agility and risks?
• With a new principle of power potentially in the making, what are the indicators of economic strength that will allow countries and businesses to lead in the new global
  environment?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Mr. Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Schneider Electric
• Mr. Joe Kaeser, President and Chief Executive Officer, Siemens
• Mr. Darius Adamczyk, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Honeywell
• H.E. Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer, Mubadala Investment Company

Moderator: Mr. John Defterios, CNN

Patrice Caine, Chairman and CEO, Thales Group

The recent pandemic crisis has exposed the vulnerability of global supply chains to unprecedented shocks. Attention continues to be placed on the need for global businesses to accelerate their digital transformation and adopt smarter and risk-adjusted business models. As the past few months forced a progressive reduction in physical interaction – be it customer-facing or across operations – automation and digitalisation have become vital for businesses to ensure sustainability.

Fortunately, new technologies have emerged that improve visibility across the supply chain and thus support a company’s resilience to such shocks.

• What are some of the challenges currently facing the manufacturing sector? Which specific industries face a complicated transition to digitalisation, and how can this be tackled?
• Which companies are leading across respective industries with digital transformation, and why? And what lessons can be learned?
• What does business resilience mean in the context of developing countries? And what strategies are they deploying to support their manufacturing sector to cope with global disruptions such as the one created by the recent pandemic?

Confirmed Speakers:

• H.E. Marcos Pontes, Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Brazil
• Dr. Steven Walker, Vice President and CTO, Lockheed Martin
• Anders Fredholm, Vice President, Global Business Development Leader for Industrial Products and Chemicals & Petroleum Industries, IBM
• T V Narendran, President Designate – CII (2020-21) and CEO and Managing Director, Tata Steel Limited
• Hon. Mattia Fantinati, Member of the Italian Parliament’s Commission on Productive Activities, Commerce and Tourism, Italy

Moderator: Ms. Laura Buckwell

Caroline Freund, Global Director, Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation, World Bank Group

More than two thirds of world trade occur through Global Value Chains (GVCs) where production crosses borders before making it to final assembly lines. Digital developments are transforming these GVCs by creating a new digital thread, allowing for advanced systems of traceability and improved logistics and planning. Moreover, the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and its technological advancements have the potential to overcome the physical barriers imposed by any crisis to give societies the digital freedom to achieve
economic and social prosperity.

• Will trading further consolidate into digital marketplaces as a result of the pandemic?
• How is digitalisation altering specific steps in the value chain, and even optimising the makeup of the chain itself?
• The online marketplace is seeing vibrant innovations in many specific areas; how can these unique solutions be integrated to help create an end-to-end digital value chain that fosters unparalleled business opportunities on a global scale?
• Will the future of GVC’s be built around supply chain flexibility as opposed to supply chain efficiency?
• Will GVC’s revolve around countries with younger populations?
• What effects will the recession have on supply-chain resilience? As countries today begin to hoard supplies, what impact does this have on global trade?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Dr. Volker Treier, Chief Executive of Foreign Trade and Member of the Executive Board, DIHK, Germany
• Dr. Nicholas Garrett, CEO, RCS Global, UK
• Mr. Nan Cunhui, Chairman of CHINT Group, China

Moderator: Mr. Declan Curry

H.E. Nevein Essam El Din Gamea, Minister of Trade and Industry, Egypt

H.E Bandar bin Ibrahim al-Khorayef, Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, Saudi Arabia

The biggest fear during the crisis has been its impact on the global economy and the uncertainty as to when the world’s businesses would return to normality. Large-scale quarantines, travel restrictions, and social-distancing measures have driven a sharp fall in consumer and business spending, which has caused the global economy to barrel towards a recession. Furthermore, the crisis had underscored economic inequalities, including those around gender. Women are not only paid less than men, but they make up the majority of global healthcare workers. As our economies slowly begin to emerge with challenging business conditions and unemployment, the current recession can only prolong a global slump.

• What will this mean for the manufacturing sector? And when can we expect the projection of the world economic recovery to begin?
• Various countries around the world announced economic stimulus packages. Have manufacturers, tech companies and start-ups benefited?
• Will the crisis indefinitely change our travel habits? What will be the implications for related industries, such as aviation?
• How can women’s voices be better reflected at the decision-making table?
• What policies do governments need to adopt in their countries to harness 4IR technology in manufacturing? How will robotics, big data and the internet of things impact workers around the world?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Arkady Dvorkovich, Chairman, Skolkovo Foundation, Former Deputy Prime Minister, Russian Federation
• H.E. Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun, Minister of Industries, Bangladesh
• Hon. Soraya Hakuziyaremye, Minister of Trade and Industry, Rwanda

Moderator: Mr. John Defterios, CNN

Over the last few months, the pandemic led to a growing concern about technology’s impact on the future of work, as this could accelerate the perceived “rise of the robots” and the threat to employment. Given that most factory floors had significantly shutdown, we witnessed a spike in automation and introduction of new business models, meaning some of the jobs lost during the crisis may never return as companies restructure their operations to rely more on machines. The industries where the workforce has most been affected are food and beverage, transportation and manufacturing. However, even big tech companies realise that heavily automated industries still rely on humans for essential tasks, and we are still far away from revamping factories to adopt full automation. Even during the outset of the crisis, where the need for automation became more apparent, economies still faltered without human workers, as machines still lack human intelligence and adaptability. What is important for the workforce is to leverage the educational strategies and policies which are required to keep up with the fast-changing employment needs of the industrial sector.

Educational systems need to change towards new curricula and new means of delivery with the goal of improved quality of education (SDG4).

Related issues include the following:

• How are industries responding to the growing need of upskilling and reskilling the workforce with the intention of adopting 4IR technologies?
• What educational reforms are required to align education systems with the needs of the advanced manufacturing sector in light of the disruption associated with the adoption of 4IR technologies?
• What are strategies for 4IR technology adoption in the context of an ageing workforce and migration?
• Automation will spur the growth of new jobs and job categories; how can this job transformation positively affect the workforce of the future? How will the model of employment change?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Dr. Susanne Bieller, General Secretary, International Federation of Robotics
• Chris Moehle, Managing Director, Coal Hill Ventures and the Robotics Hub
• Gary Fedder, Howard M. Wilkoff Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Faculty Director, Manufacturing Futures initiative, Carnegie Mellon University
• Christian Piechnick, CEO and Co-Founder, Wandelbots

Moderator: Ms. Laura Buckwell

Olga Golodets, Former Deputy Prime Minister, Russian Federation, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Sberbank

The pandemic placed a strain on vital industries including healthcare, education and telecommunications, where companies within these sectors had to face new realities that went beyond addressing the virus itself. The healthcare industry recognised the importance of technology to accelerate scientific research on sustainable solutions for future emergence of pathogens, drug development and more, by leveraging big and real-time data to guide operational decisions. Likewise, the shift of the global workforce towards remote-work caused unprecedented demand on telecommunications infrastructure and connectivity.

Cancelled domestic and global business travel further impacted the networks with increased reliance on videoconferencing and mobile communications. However, the opportunity to accelerate the adoption of technologies and leverage them to drive production during the crisis, when labour was for the most part unavailable, proved to be successful. We have witnessed a radical shift in traditional business models, where most companies have reimagined the ‘office’ workspace through virtual conferencing tools.

• How could specific technologies like blockchain and augmented reality (AR) be used to support the healthcare sector to enable it to better handle future pandemics?
• Are public networks operated by telecommunication service providers geared to the infrastructural needs of industrial users? What steps are needed to ensure the continued provision of critical infrastructure
• Rethinking behavioural protocols: what new rules and behaviours were adopted to cope with remote lifestyles to successfully run a business? Were they successful? What needs to be done to enhance these protocols?
• How can mobile solutions and local data networks support developing countries through an economic recovery?
• Creating new norms and educating employees: how have companies ensured a company culture is built virtually? How do they tackle issues of transparency and engagement from leadership to team members? What should be done better to ensure this?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Edward Zhou, Vice President for Global Public Affairs, Huawei Technologies
• H.E. Hussain Al-Hammadi, Cabinet Member and Minister of Education, UAE

The vast variety of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies make it difficult for companies to choose technologies relevant for them. It is argued that standardisation of these technologies could help companies decide which ones are useful. This session will review the current trends in absorbing digital technologies worldwide, and evaluate the opportunities to create transparency and standards through international institutions.

Furthermore, the recent pandemic has shown that policymakers need to act quickly to strategically formulate a relevant set of standards, as there is a greater shift towards digital adoption.

• Why is it important to have internationally recognised standards for 4IR technologies and how can they be applied in manufacturing?
• Can the great variety of digital technological solutions be adequately categorised and standardised? How does the international standardisation landscape look like?
• How far have the national and international standards bodies, research institutions and the relevant political spheres reached?
• How can the multitude of international bodies relevant to 4IR standardisation work together to achieve international standardisation of 4IR technologies?
• What are the regulatory challenges that may affect the dissemination and application of international standards in a post-crisis situation?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Dr. Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, Managing Director, Directorate of Digitalization, Technology and Agri-Business, UNIDO
• Elena Santiago Cid, Director General, CEN and CENELEC
• Prof. Joao Carlos Ferraz, Associate Professor – Instituto de Economia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Germany

Electricity from renewable sources will become the most important energy carrier in order to achieve the climate targets set by the Paris Agreement. However, not all fossil fuels in the industrial sectors can be replaced by direct electrification, including parts of the raw materials and chemical industries as well as heavy goods, shipping and air transport.

Hydrogen and its derivates offer genuine technological and low carbon alternatives to
substitute fossil fuels in hard-to-abate sectors. This potential has recently been recognised from a wide range of policymakers and industry players. How hydrogen can help to transform into a sustainable industry and how new industrial value chains can be created will be discussed on the virtual panel.

Confirmed Speakers:

• Armin Schnettler, CEO New Energy Business, Siemens Energy, President, VDE, Germany (Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies)
• Dr. Kirsten Westphal, German Institute for International and Security Affairs and Member of the National Hydrogen Council
• Daniel Mills, Product Manager Hydrogen and Clean Energy, Linde Australia (BOC)

Moderator:

Holger Lösch, Deputy Director General Executive Board, The Federation of German Industries (BDI), Germany

Mohamed Jameel Al-Ramahi, CEO, Masdar

• Badr Al-Olama, Head of the Organising Committee, Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS)
• Holger Lösch, Deputy Director General Executive Board, The Federation of German Industries (BDI), Germany
• Dr. Volker Treier, Chief Executive of Foreign Trade and Member of the Executive Board, DIHK, Germany
• Dr. Hiroshi Kuniyoshi, Deputy Director General, UNIDO and the Managing Director of External Relations and Policy Research

Namir Hourani, Managing Director, Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS)

Society 5.0 addresses a number of key pillars: infrastructure, finance tech, healthcare, logistics and, of course, augmented intelligence.

Emerging from Industry 4.0, Society 5.0 can
be defined as, “A human-centred society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of social problems by a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical
space.” The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will significantly enhance human capabilities through the use of technologies such as the IoT, augmented intelligence, autonomous vehicles and additive manufacturing. Society 5.0 moves beyond the digitalisation of manufacturing across all levels of society and enables super-smart society with customised solutions. It will affect not only the way we work but also the way we live, potentially upending our way of life as we know it. Society 5.0 aims to tackle social problems whilst still allowing economic development, but controlled by humans, not machines. This means new public-private collaboration that enables governments to more effectively and efficiently partner with industry, academia and society to respond to challenges or unlock new potential. As with Industry 4.0, Society 5.0 is closely aligned with the attainment of the UN 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development. However, there are several hurdles to overcome before we can achieve Society 5.0  transformation. Government bodies need national strategies, legal systems must be fit for purpose, there must be significant advances in technological capabilities, improved knowledge and understanding of users, and, arguably most important of all, social acceptance. Pittsburgh is emerging as a key centre for robotics innovation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning having drawn some of the world’s leading companies in the AI and tech industries to create offices and headquarters within the region.

• William Peduto, Mayor of Pittsburgh, USA
• Christopher Martin, Director of Engineering, Research and Development, Robert Bosch, USA

Dr. Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, Managing Director, Directorate of Digitalization, Technology and Agri-Business, UNIDO