World Economic Forum is establishing a new center in San Francisco to connect tech companies and policymakers in the heart of the world’s technology industry.

• The World Economic Forum, which organises the annual Davos meeting of international leaders, has opened an office in San Francisco to focus on policy and regulatory issues surrounding new technologies such as artificial intelligence, drones, digital currencies and the Internet of Things.
• The office is named the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, in reference to the overarching theme of the most recent Davos gathering in January, and aims to promote collaboration between businesses, investors, regulators, policy-makers, international organisations and academia.
• It also plans to collaborate on existing Forum projects, such as the security of connected devices, digital trade and the use of new technologies to manage the world’s oceans.
• The European Commission is in the planning stages of regulations to better secure Intenet-connected devices, amidst a wider overhaul of communications and digital policy aimed at adapting the regulatory environment to new technologies.

DO YOU KNOW?

• The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Swiss nonprofit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva.
• The forum was founded in 1971 by Klaus Schwab, a German-born business professor at the University of Geneva.
• First named the “European Management Forum“, it changed its name to the World Economic Forum in 1987 and sought to broaden its vision to include providing a platform for resolving international conflicts.
• Recognized by the Swiss authorities as the international institution for public-private cooperation, its mission is cited as “committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.
• The Forum is best known for its annual winter meeting for five days in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland.