The Bridge Tank  analyzes the theme of the 2016 Davos Forum and identifies the new emerging economies as being the key to economic diversification. For more on this subject, take a look at our “Insights into Emerging Economies” .

The 2016 edition of the Davos Forum opens on 20 January, inviting some 2,800 attendees to discuss the challenges posed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

For decades, its focus was on the North but, a few years ago, the World Economic Forum finally came to grips with the question of emergence; whereas last year it had tackled the climate change issue common to both the North and South, this year it seemingly inclines to explore innovation – the heart of this new industrial transformation – simply from the point of view of the North. As for the emerging countries, they appear to be no more than observers, or worse, their emergence could well be threatened by this transformation.

These are issues raised by Klaus Schwab in Foreign Affairs.

And yet, to our mind, in as much as the industrial and human driver of economic growth is innovation and its deployment, the South countries are giving daily proof of the role they are playing, and will play, in actually defining this Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In the United Arab Emirates, which has just organized a Sustainability Week, Abu Dhabi is making 2016 its Year of Innovation. In Morocco, the Ministry of the Environment is hoping to set innovation as the dominant note for the 2016 COP-22. In India, Narendra Modi is aiming to make the country into an innovation and manufacturing hub. And China has already embedded its hefty ambitions and involvement in this area into its China 2050 agenda. All of these are voices that intend to make themselves heard at Davos.

To download the “Insight” click here .