Ambassador Raffaele Trombetta previews the themes of the G7 Innovation Week

On Monday, September 25, the G7 Innovation Week opens in Turin, where three Ministerial Meetings dedicated to Industry and ICT, Science and Labour will take place. The central topic of these meetings will be a discussion on how to deal with the big changes triggered by the Next Production Revolution. A revolution affecting production, education and labour, which thanks to advances in robotics, application of artificial intelligence to production processes, the increasingly sophisticated use of Big Data and the introduction of modern digital, energy and logistics infrastructures, will generate a significant impact on productivity and growth, as well as on socio-economic relations.

Understanding and managing the dynamics of this impact has been from the very beginning one of the pillars of the Italian G7 Presidency’s activity. The goal of our Presidency is to lay the foundations for a joint commitment of all G7 countries to make innovation a source of prosperity, well-being and inclusive growth. The adoption of pragmatic and far-sighted policies - from industrial policies to those related to enabling factors, from measures to support research and education to social and labor-related policies – should aim to ensure that all citizens can benefit from the ongoing technological and digital revolution. Cooperation between governments at international level can transform the fear of change into a strategic vision and the risk of new inequalities in a truly inclusive and sustainable growth.

In this context, it is crucial to address the changes caused by digitalization and automation on the organization of work and welfare, with specific focus on the quantity and quality of work, the new essential skills and the training programs. The availability of a skilled workforce enables organizations to adopt new technologies and exploit their productive potential. With an unusual decision for the G7, it was decided to focus on a single city and on several consecutive days the discussion on many related topics. Through this choice the Italian Presidency wanted to emphasize the importance of the holistic approach to the great theme of innovation and at the same time the will to engage the greatest number of stakeholders.

The Innovation Week is the ideal continuation of the work begun during the Taormina Summit of last May. On that occasion, the Heads of State and Government adopted the Action Plan on Innovation Skills and Labor, which identifies three main pillars - innovation in production, knowledge-based capital and enabling infrastructures, future of work - and nine priority areas, which will be addressed at the ministerial meetings.

During the week, along with meetings between government representatives, there will be a series of events that will engage many players in the world of innovation. In the Multistakeholder Conference of Monday, 25 September, various international experts will discuss the relationship between digital transformation and small and medium-sized businesses, the importance of data and the benefits of Artificial Intelligence. The same day it will be held the first meeting of the engagement group I-7, which will gather many innovators from the G7 countries to share experiences and new ideas on the use of Big Data to improve services for citizens, the application of Artificial Intelligence to the public sector and how technologies can be used to address changes in our society, starting from the labor market. A specific workshop will then be devoted to a highly relevant topic that affects the entire international community: cybersecurity. During these days, the G7 Heads of active labour market policies institutions will meet to discuss labour market and employment, while the G7 cooperative associations will meet in Milan to address the role of cooperation in the process of digital transformation of work.

Our hope is that this week of work will lay the foundations for a joint commitment of the G7 countries towards ever closer coordination of national policies on innovation, with the aim of maximizing the benefits of the Next Production Revolution for citizens and businesses.

Raffaele Trombetta