The policy research workshop will explore the economic and social implications of emerging trends in new digital production technologies, their impact on national economies and the global economic systems, and the role of industrial policy in steering the digital revolution in a socially desirable direction, i.e. preventing damaging consequences and promoting its positive impact. Innovative digital technologies are disruptive in nature and have far-reaching consequences for all three dimensions of sustainable development: They (1) affect future patterns of productivity, competitiveness and employment, (2) exert a strong influence on education and skill requirements as well as income distribution, and (3) have the potential to contribute to increased resource-efficiency and ultimately, a decoupling of resource consumption from economic growth. Moreover, from a broader perspective, digital technologies will also play a role in determining the evolving international economic division of labour, inter alia through their impact on global value chains and thus the future position of developing countries in the global economy. In this context, the workshop will also establish a link to the topical debate around ‘latecomer development’ and ‘premature deindustrialization’. With a regional focus on countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the potential for learning from more advanced ‘early movers’ will be explored as an input into the renewed debate on the role of active industrial policies for shaping the digital future.

The current discourse on this topic is rife with speculation and dystopian visions. Against this backdrop, the Workshop will seek to present a sober and balanced stocktaking of both the perils and potentials of new digital technologies. Dedicated thematic panels will bring together leading economists, industry experts and policy practitioners.

 

Presentations

►Digitalization and economic development: Do we know the winners and losers?

Wilfried Lütkenhorst and Tilman Altenburg, DIE



►Automation and Inequality – Directions of change for the world of work in the Global South

Andrew Norton, IIED

►New digital technologies: Potential for innovation

Heiko Seif, UNITY Consulting & Innovation

►Industrie 4.0 from both a user‘s and a vendor‘s perspective

Dr. Gerhard Volkwein, Director Digital Enterprise Architecture

►New digital technologies: Socioeconomic effects and potential for innovation

Dr. José Ramón López-Portillo R.



►Changing technologies – persistent inequalities?

Michael Tiemann, Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung

►Industry 4.0: impact on industrialization as a development strategy

Jörg Mayer, UNCTAD

►Impact on employment, skills and inequality – a view from and on Latin America

Jürgen Weller, Employment Studies Unit, CEPAL

►The future of GVCs, manufacturing and reshoring: some insights from recent OECD work

Koen De Backer, OECD

►The future of manufacturing and global value chains: Is the trend towards reshoring fiction or reality?

Professor Jan Stentoft, University of Southern Denmark

►Industrial Policy in an hyper ‐ connected world

Mario Cimoli, Deputy Executive Secretary, UN ‐ ECLAC

►Impulse on Competitiveness

Dr. Carsten Polenz – SAP SE

►Digitization and the productivity challenge in Latin America

Dr. Raúl L. Katz, Columbia Institute for Tele‐Information

►Digitalization and resource efficiency

Jose Luis Samaniego, Director Sust. Dev. and HH Settlements ECLAC

►Smart energy systems and resource efficiency

Luis Munuera, IEA

►Accelerating clean energy through Industry 4.0: manufacturing the next revolution

Tareq Emtairah, UN, Industrial Development Organization

►Priorities for Sustainability in 3D Printing

Jeremy Faludi, Dartmouth College

►Innovative Business Models in the German „Mittelstand“

Prof. Dr. Michael Dowling, University of Regensburg, Chairman of the MÜNCHNER KREIS, Advisor to the Executive Board of acatech

►Rethinking the basis of the welfare state under the digital paradigm

Daniel Buhr, Professor for Policy Analisys and Political Economy, University of Tübingen

►Rise of Mega Industry 4.0 Firms: reflections on the Role of the State

Padmashree Gehl Sampath, UNCTAD

►The future of work in the Argentine perspective

Alejandra Kern, Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Argentina

►National Certification System of Labor Competencies Standards

Digitalization, Skills and Policy Responses

Silvia Ruz, Head of the Skills Unit ‐ ChileValora

►Industry 4.0 Summarizing statements

Tilman Altenburg, DIE