Benefits of 'fourth industrial revolution' should reach countries like Bangladesh: FM at Davos

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali has told the World Economic Forum (WEF) that the benefits of the fourth industrial revolution should reach counties like Bangladesh as a new report, ahead of the prestigious forum, points to a global system that rewards the super-rich and neglects the poor.

The Bangladesh mission in Geneva said Ali made the intervention, as a contributor, at the workshop on “Readiness for Future of Production” on Tuesday and addressed insights from the assessments from peer countries at similar stages of development.

He underlined that in the course of transformation of economies through fourth industrial revolution, "it should also be seen that benefits of prosperity reach the underprivileged, especially in countries like Bangladesh."

"Otherwise, reconfiguration of economic systems and production architecture may endanger empowerment and equality of nations and among nations," he said.

As global political and business leaders gather for this week's World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam on Monday said, "four out of every five dollars of wealth generated in 2017 ended up in the pockets of the richest one percent, while the poorest half of humanity got nothing."

It found that 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth in 2017, while 82 percent of the wealth generated last year went to the richest one percent of the global population.

The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create the mass production.

The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production.

Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century, according to the World Economic Forum.

"It (fourth revolution) is characterised by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres."

The technological revolution, in its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before, the Davos forum said.