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12月15日，由数央网、数央公益联合国内众媒体共同举办的STIF2023第四届国际科创节暨2023数服会在北京举行。本届科创节主题为“数实融合，推动高质量发展”，来自科技、商业、政界、学界等领域与会嘉宾共同探讨当下发展所面临的挑战和机遇，探寻数智化转型升级路径，助力高质量发展。
本届STIF线上线下汇聚了1000余位科技创新和数智化领域的参会代表，300家创新品牌汇聚科创节，现场展示创新成果，120余位重要嘉宾通过线上线下的方式分享前沿观点。印度工商会联合会执行董事、厦门金砖国家经济文化研究服务中心发起人ATUL DALAKOTI出席本届科创节，并作开幕主旨演讲。以下为演讲实录：
Respected leaders, ladies and gentlemen, Good morning ! It is indeed a great pleasure for me to be part of this program today in this beautiful city of Beijing.
The current international landscape is a complicated one. Today we are still seeing the fallout of the Ukraine war and things have become even more complicated due to the Israel-Hamas conflict. The US change in policy towards China has further made the international situation more complex. Navigating this new reality has brought into focus the Global South which is where the real action is today. These developing economies are spread over Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Trading and investments among these countries is becoming more and more important as we go forward.
The importance of the Digital Integration for promoting High Quality Economic growth is the base of the Digital Transformation which can be sustainable and broad based. Digital Integration is possible only by creating a digital infrastructure which is needed for technological innovations and for the industrial transformation of the new digital economy which gives a great impetus to the new Sharing Economy which is more sustainable and green and helps to bridge the digital divide between the developed world and the developing world.
BRICS countries today represent this ongoing transformation. Bloomberg has estimated that global growth contribution from BRICS countries is outpacing that of the Group of Seven (G7) based on IMF figures. In fact, BRICS is expected to contribute over 50% of global GDP by 2030. On Jan 01, 2024 BRICS would welcome to its fold 6 new member countries and this figure of 50% would be realized much sooner. At present BRICS countries represents a total population of 42% of the world with 27% of its GDP and 17% of international trade. There are 25 more countries waiting to join the BRICS and create a much bigger group of countries which really represent the Global South and are going to play a bigger role as a economic engine of the international growth. The BRICS countries are witnessing a DIGITAL TRANFORMATION which is changing the way business is done around the world and is affecting the whole process of MANUFACURING.
We need to work on the information infrastructure so that we can try to bridge the digital divide which exists in the BRICS economies. Today the number of people who have access to internet connectivity in these markets has grown substantially. There are possibilities of hardware and software products being designed for the BRICS countries , by the BRICS countries and that would certainly help in creating a much better information infrastructure which in turn would help the traditional manufacturing businesses to do better. A lot of equipment manufacturers have now started production in each of these markets . These companies not only bring the best products but also bring new technologies and “intellectual” ways of Manufacturing which is smart and at the same time green as it is environmentally friendly and creates an atmosphere of Digital Integration to make the whole process seemless.
The E-Commerce is seeing phenomenal growth all over the world. The number of people who are doing their shopping online , especially after the epidemic, has seen a huge growth and this trend is going to continue. This would also create a possibility of developing huge smart logistic infrastructure which is labor intensive and creates job opportunities for a lot of young people. The BRICS countries should not only look at expanding their own E-Commerce platforms but also invest in other platforms and create partnerships that enable goods to move in different platforms and increase the reach of the small and medium scale manufacturers to more and more households and create Digital Integration.
Mobile Payment is going to be the biggest challenge as we need an integrated system which can work cross border. Also we need to have smart manufacturing so that similar products coming from the same manufacturing line is able to have different features that are required in specific markets where they are to be exported. All this can only be possible when we are able to create a platform which creates Digital Integration for creating quality products.
I would like to talk about India and China who indeed are important BRICS countries and have a combined population of more than 2.8 billion. China and India are ancient civilizations who have cohabitated in Asia for a long time and have had good neighborly relationship and both of them have made major contributions to the growth of the human civilization. With the amazing policy of opening up and economic reforms China has in the past 40 years made tremendous progress and today has become the second largest economy. India with a great demographic advantage having such a young population is also going to grow at a good speed and would soon become the third largest economy of the world. India has embarked on Make in India initiative under the leadership of its Prime Minister Narendra Modi and there are a lot of opportunities for Chinese companies to be part of this transformation.
Digital Transformation in changing India where the private sector innovation has helped bring internet-enabled services to millions of consumers and made online usage more accessible. Data costs have plummeted by more than 95 percent since 2013 and fixed-line download speeds quadrupled between 2014 and 2017. As a result, mobile data consumption per user grew by 152 percent annually—more than twice the rates in the United States and China. The pace of growth is helping India’s poorer provinces to narrow the digital gap with wealthier provinces and bringing a revolution in the small and medium scale industries.
Despite these advances, India has plenty of room to grow. Only about 50 percent of the populace has an internet subscription. While many people have digital bank accounts, 90 percent of all retail transactions in India, by volume, are still made with cash. E-commerce revenue is growing by more than 25 to 30 percent per year, yet only 5 percent of trade in India is done online.
The rise of trends such as "off-shoring to on-shoring" and "mass manufacturing to mass customization" has pushed traditional companies to transform rapidly and embrace a new technology-driven business model based on digital integrated smart manufacturing . Robotics and Automation are helping companies in this rapid transformation.
Globally as manufacturing technology continues to advance exponentially, barriers to entry, commercialization and learning are eroding. While large-scale production will always dominate some segments of the value chain, innovative manufacturing models—distributed small-scale local manufacturing, loosely coupled manufacturing ecosystems, and agile manufacturing are arising to take advantage of these new opportunities. The growing popularity of "smart" products has prompted some technology companies to make forays into the manufacturing space, either by developing software to run the products or by producing the products themselves.
Going forward India would require a Digital Agriculture, Digital Retail, Digital Healthcare, Digital Logistics and a Digital Mindset of doing Businesses. Indian companies will need to invest in building digital capabilities, especially hiring people with the skills needed to start and accelerate a digital transformation.
There is no doubt in my mind that India is in the process of becoming a digitally advanced country as it ushers in a situation where falling cost and rising availability of smartphones and high speed connectivity has given India a fast paced growing base of digital consumers and the pace of digitalization is even become faster than a lot of developed economies. These changes are totally redefining the way manufacturing has been done in the past and even in traditional manufacturing industry are becoming smarter in how they go about with their manufacturing and try to decrease their carbon imprint.
If we truly believe in Globalization and the Shared Prosperity we are obliged to work together to create this eco-system for our future generations. We really need to look at what are the requirements of the market we want to enter and what sort of value add we can give to the existing stakeholders and can we work together with the businesses and the government to create value for the markets that we are entering and in the process create financial and economic benefits for us.
Ladies and gentlemen , I am convinced that the area of cooperation between BRICS countries is in the new economy space and we should work together to make this happen. India can play an important part in this and so can China and the other BRICS countries.
My wish is that India and China and all the BRICS countries should become the champions of globalization and work together to create a new world order which is based on the principles of equity and transparency and create a digitally integrated model which leads to quality products and this further leads to development of quality products and services.
For creating a community which is in pursuit of a shared future, we need to work together for creating digital integration for a true transformation of our economic development model.
I want to congratulate the organizers for a wonderful program. I would also like to wish all the participants all the very best.
Thank you!!!
