The World Economic Forum recently announced to hold the Business Roundtable themed on “Digital Transformation of Strategic Industries” in Guangzhou from November 9 to 10. It was learnt that, during the roundtable, the World Economic Forum will hold a press conference to introduce related achievements under the report of China’s Innovation Ecosystem.

 

According to Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, Guangzhou has become a best friend of the World Economic Forum. Since 2014, Guangzhou has sent delegations to attend the summer and winter Davos forums for two consecutive years. Just before the holding of the summer Davos this year, Klaus Schwab visited Guangzhou. He said that it was his second visit to Guangzhou following his first visit 35 years ago. He overlooked the beautiful scenery of the “city of flowers” on the Canton Tower and felt the vitality and vigor of the city. This led him to think about how to join the hands of the World Economic Forum and Guangzhou and even China to promote further cooperation and a higher-level development like the Canton Tower reaching towards the sky.

 

The Business Roundtable to be held in November is a new action for join the hands of the World Economic Forum and Guangzhou. It was said that, about 300 people, including those in charge of Chinese enterprises that are members of the World Economic Forum, those in charge of business of strategic partners of the World Economic Forum in China, those in charge of some selected non-member enterprises, famous scholars and media leaders, will be invited to the forum. Many of them are management of Fortune 500 enterprises and well-known international and Chinese enterprises. Through this interactive forum focusing on China, the attendees will exchange opinions and have in-depth discussions about the vision of China for promoting digital transformation of strategic industries and the paths for reform to further explore the opportunities and challenges related to public and private partnerships in the future.

 

So far, China has made unprecedented progress in developing digital technologies, which has influence on a great variety of industries, including manufacturing, consumer goods and specialized services. Many enterprises have had an estimated value of USD1 billion within four years, while it traditionally takes a Fortune 500 enterprise 20 years to achieve the same goal. The 13^th Five-Year Plan of China proposed the “Internet plus” strategy, aiming to realize the transformation and upgrading of China’s strategic industries through digital transformation. As a major national central city, Guangzhou faces many challenges and opportunities brought by digital and technological transformation. Therefore, it is making great efforts to build a hub-type network city and form up a pattern with integrated development of international shipping, logistics and trade centers and modern financial service system. The Business Roundtable of the World Economic Forum is just going to be held under such a circumstance. It will focus on “Digital Transformation of Strategic Industries” to make explorations for a number of issues, such as what enterprises and new entrepreneurs can do to take advantage of the golden opportunity to create higher value and improve their competitiveness in the digital era.

 

According to related introduction, many insights on innovation and development will be brought forward at the roundtable, and it can be expected that new driving forces for further development will be brought about by the concepts. A series of interactive conferences will be held to collect the opinions and views of the experts. Mutual discussion under the guidance of people who preside over the conferences instead of speech with draft will be encouraged.

 

During the roundtable, the World Economic Forum will hold a press conference to introduce related achievements under the report of China’s Innovation Ecosystem, discuss about and analyze China’s innovation policies and ecosystems and make summary of the best practices to inspire new thinking about China’s innovation ecology in the future.

 

Source: Translated from Invest Guangzhou, October 24, 2016