The XI Astana Economic Forum - Global Challenges Summit has opened in the capital of Kazakhstan, , Kazpravda reports.
The panel session "EAEU and Iran. New prospects for preferential trade cooperation" opened the forum, at which cooperation of Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union members is discussed within the framework of the Interim Agreement on the establishment of a free trade zone.
Later, at 10.00 (Astana time), plenary session took place with participation of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev "The World of Global Challenges".
It should be noted that this year among the top speakers are the ex-President of France François Hollande, the 8th UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, co-founder of Apple Steve Wozniak, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs, Jim O'Neill.
The first two days of the forum will be devoted to the global agenda, on the third day the key speakers will work in six directions throughout the day with representatives of the RK Government, expert community.
The task of the Global Challenges Summit is to invite the international intellectual elite to the dialogue and understand the technological trends of the present, join efforts, develop possible solutions for adaptation to key planetary changes.
The Global Challenges Summit 2018 program is built around the 11 most important challenges of the modern world: unified economy and global strategy, resources and clean energy, longevity and the world of a new humanity, digitization, future money, global security and urbanization.
The Astana Economic Forum is the annual central business event of Eurasia.
Over the 10 years of the forum, about 50,000 delegates from 150 countries of the world visited it, among them more than 20 Nobel laureates and 30 foreign political figures of the highest level.
Within its framework, more than 300 memoranda and agreements were signed in the amount exceeding $ 20 billion.
Speakers of the forum at different times were politicians, scientists and economists, journalists and public figures of the world level, representatives of international organizations, financial institutions and business elites.
At the XI Astana Economic Forum President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev named five key megatrends on which the world develops, Kazpravda.kz correspondent reports.
"The observed processes are objective and are caused by global changes. Their character can be described through five major megatrends of the planet's development. The first megatrend is digitization of all aspects of humanity's activity. By 2030 artificial intelligence will increase the world economy by $ 16 trillion. The phenomenon of crypto-currency, blockchain technology, all this will entail drastic changes in the financial market, including banks. According to experts, 200 of the 500 largest companies will cease to exist in the next decade, " the President of Kazakhstan said.
Kazakhstan, he stressed, is actively involved in the changing reality. Digital Kazakhstan state program is at work for development of the digital infrastructure of the IT-ecosystem in the country. Using new technologies, it is planned to increase labor productivity by 50% in the manufacturing sector in 5 years.
"The second global trend is energy revolution, movement of the world towards clean energy. In just 30 years the amount of energy received from renewable sources has grown 13 times," the President of Kazakhstan went on to say, noting that in this trend our country held EXPO-2017 themed "Future Energy". Also, with development of new types of energy, it is expected that by 2030 the share of energy from alternative sources in the country's energy balance will be brought up to 30%.
The third megatrend, the Head of State meted out, is rapid growth of the population. In Kazakhstan, life expectancy has grown over the years of independence by 7 years, from 65 to 72.5 years, and today exceeds the world average.
"Many of the related issues need be addressed given the demographic changes. To feed the 10 billion people in the middle of the century, 60 percent more food has to be produced, and it is not an easy task given the limited base resources, especially the growing fresh water deficit. It will take considerable resource efficiency of agribusiness, which should now become one of the most high-tech sectors of the economy. Kazakhstan has set the target of increasing labor productivity in the agro-industrial complex 2.5 times using modern achievements," Nazarbayev emphasized.
The fourth megatrend is change in the pace and nature of urbanization. According to UN estimates, by mid-21st century, the number of people living in cities will reach 7 billion. At the same time, the population will continue to hyperconcentrate in the largest agglomerations. With this in mind, Kazakhstan has started implementing a strategy for the development of agglomerations.
The fifth megatrend is transformation of the global labor market. According to expert forecasts, predictable manual labor in the coming years can be 80% replaced by robotic systems. Modern enterprises focus more not on cheap labor force, but on qualified employees.
"Kazakhstan is also conducting consistent work in this area by changing the training programs at all levels. At the most difficult time for the country after the Soviet Union collapse, when we had no money at all, we launched the Bolashak program to train our young people in the best world universities, and in 25 years, almost 13 000 Kazakhstanis were given the opportunity to enroll in this programme at the expense of the state," the President said.
According to him, the state increases the number of grants, improves the living conditions of student youth. Since last year, free vocational education programme has been launched, world-class intellectual schools were established that have international accreditation.
Reported by the Kazakstanskaya Pravda.
