MR. RIFKIN WILL PROPOSE A LONG-TERM COLLABORATIVE SINO-GERMAN INITIATIVE TO ADVANCE AN INTERNET OF THINGS INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A THIRD INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ACROSS EURASIA—A DIGITAL EURASIA SILK ROAD ECONOMIC BELT—TO USHER IN A SMART, GREEN, LOW-CARBON SOCIETY ALONG THE WORLD'S LARGEST LAND MASS.
Jeremy Rifkin, economic theorist and President of the Foundation on Economic Trends, will deliver a keynote address at the Sino-German CeBIT Conference on March 17th in Hannover, Germany. Mr. Rifkin will propose a long-term Sino-German grand initiative to advance an Internet of Things infrastructure for a Third Industrial Revolution across Eurasia—a Digital Eurasia Silk Road Economic Belt—to usher-in a smart, green, low-carbon society along the world's largest land mass. In recent months, Chairman Xi and Premier Li of China have called for a new Eurasia Silk Road Economic Belt to connect the Eurasian land mass in a seamless integrated market from Shanghai to the Irish Sea. At the same time, both the European Union and China are preparing for the erection and scale-up of an Internet of Things infrastructure to establish a fully digitalized economy in their respective regions. Mr. Rifkin suggests that "A Sino-German partnership to promote a digitalized Internet of Things infrastructure across Eurasia could bring much of the human family together for the first time in history, with far-reaching benefits for humankind."
A digital Eurasia Silk Road Economic Belt involves much more than providing universal broadband, free Wi-Fi, and a flow of Big Data. The digitalized communication Internet is converging with a digitalized renewable Energy Internet, and a digitalized automated Transportation and Logistics Internet, to create a super-Internet of Things (IoT). In the Internet of Things era, sensors will be embedded into every device and appliance, allowing them to communicate with each other and Internet users, providing up to the moment data on the managing, powering, and moving of economic activity in a smart digital world. Mr. Rifkin points out that "In this expanded digital economy, private enterprises connected to the Internet of Things can use Big Data and analytics to develop algorithms that speed efficiency, increase productivity, and dramatically lower the marginal cost of producing and distributing physical things, making Eurasian businesses the most competitive in the global marketplace." (Marginal cost is the cost of producing an additional unit of a good or service, after fixed costs have been absorbed.) The marginal cost of some goods and services in a digital Eurasia will even approach zero, allowing millions of prosumers connected to the Internet of Things to produce and exchange things with one another, for nearly free, in the growing Sharing Economy.
The new digital platform fundamentally changes the way we manage, power, and move economic activity across the myriad value chains and networks that make up the global economy. Mr. Rifkin concludes that "A digital Eurasia Silk Road Economic Belt will revolutionize every commercial sector, bring with it unprecedented new economic opportunities, put millions of people back to work, and create a more sustainable low-carbon society to mitigate climate change. The digitalized Internet of Things platform is the core of the Third Industrial Revolution."
