IIASA at the OSCE Economic and Environmental Committee Meeting

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) held an Economic and Environmental Committee thematic meeting to discuss impact of digital technologies and of the 4th industrial revolution on society.

IIASA Research Scholar from Advanced Systems Analysis Program Asjad Naqvi was invited by the Chairperson of OSCE Economic and Environmental Committee, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the OSCE H.E. Ambassador Kairat Sarybay to speak at the meeting. Naqvi made a presentation to the audience on automation and its impact on society, where he stressed the need for large data sets to train machine learning algorithms and also cited examples of the impact of automation on the labor market. Naqvi noted the necessity to understand the economic theory behind the ongoing processes. At the same time, according to IIASA representative, this area of research is quite new and full of theoretical discussions. For example, it is important to take into account the fact that although automation provides growth at an aggregated level, it is necessary to look at the distributional effects. Naqvi also briefed the audience on the work done by IIASA on this topic, including interconnected balance sheets, population projection, model of ageing and automation.

Participants of the meeting noted importance of digital technologies and discussed their impact on new models of economy and governance. They also reflected on digital infrastructure and network security. The role of 4th Industrial Revolution in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was highlighted.

Dmitry Erokhin, Research Assistant at IIASA Advanced Systems Analysis Program, also participated in the meeting.

L-R: Ambassador Vuk Žugić, Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities; Asjad Naqvi, Research Scholar, Advanced Systems Analysis Program, IIASA; representative of OSCE Secretariat; Ambassador Kairat Sarybay, Chairperson of OSCE Economic and Environmental Committee, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the OSCE © Dmitry Erokhin | IIASA

Last edited: 04 December 2019