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Showing posts with label Industrial 4.0. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Industrial 4.0. Show all posts

Monday, April 13, 2020

How China's industrial Internet is fighting Covid-19

"For most people alive today, anywhere in the world, we have never faced a crisis of such magnitude. It is the first true test of our ability to stand together in the face of a common enemy"


An aerial view shows the newly completed Huoshenshan Hospital. Digital tools helped coordinate its design and construction-Image: REUTERS
  • Taking advantage of emerging technologies, including Big Data and artificial intelligence, has enabled China to respond rapidly to the impacts of COVID-19 and to fight against its spread;
  • New hospitals were built in record time and millions of students were able to resume their learning online thanks to the industrial internet;
  • From coordinating community volunteers to offer municipal programmes online, digital platforms have helped empower citizens in the fight against the virus.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought huge challenges across the globe.

There are contradictions and conflicts, but also an unprecedented spirit within humanity to defeat this scourge. Beyond national borders, countries are working together to combat the coronavirus, utilizing joint prevention and control mechanisms while sharing resources and information.

Have you read?

In China, people have joined together to contain the virus’ spread. Their achievements have been nothing short of heroic given the exponential rise in confirmed cases, a huge and densely-packed population and the world’s largest human migration simultaneously occurring during the Chinese New Year festivities in January and February.

The involvement of Tencent, a Chinese internet technology company, in promoting the power of digital, is testament to the rise of the industrial internet in the fight against the virus.

While the consumer internet provides services such as social networking and e-commerce to consumers who are self-isolating, its industrial counterpart, focusing primarily on business and industry, has worked to safeguard society’s normal operation, making a profound contribution which we will call the “ACE effect”.

Accelerator: a new speed record

Incorporating technologies, including 5G, artificial intelligence, Big Data and cloud computing, the industrial internet is a new, pan-industry infrastructure. Connecting data, while promoting data sharing and its evolving importance, enables the coordination of the entire industry chain. This has given the Chinese manufacturing industry a dramatic boost, leading to an amazing string of new production records.

An excellent example is the newly built Huoshenshan and Leishenshan Hospitals, which offer 2,600 beds in total.

Containing the virus’ spread required additional facilities to handle the patient load and construction workers took just 10 days and 12 days respectively to build and equip both. Digital tools like BIM (Building Information Modelling), allowed the hospitals’ design institutes to utilize the industrial internet, bringing together hundreds of BIM designers nationwide. The hospitals’ design plans were produced in 24 hours and construction drawings in only 60 hours. Onsite construction was so well-organized that thousands of machines were monitored and coordinated in real-time through an industrial internet platform.


https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1421909607991805

From 1 January to 7 February, more than 3,000 Chinese companies incorporated the production of medical supplies into their business scopes, dynamically increasing the production scale of masks, protective clothing and disinfectants. The industrial internet has enabled this rapid, cross-sector production. A well-aligned, start-to-finish and modular industry chain allowed companies to rapidly change processes and produce new product types while absorbing large-scale changes to volume, capacity or capability.

Change-maker: the cyber-world becomes the real world

The outbreak increased the digitalization of sectors including medical services, office work and education. In turn, these newly digital products have reshaped people’s perceptions and behaviours. Society has experienced an irreversible leap into digital life.

Following the outbreak, Tencent, Alibaba and vertical online healthcare platforms like DXY began offering the public remote medical services. People consulted with online doctors, conducted self-assessments and decided whether to go to a hospital for further medical checks or remain at home. These simple screening tools reduced non-essential hospital visits and caregiver workloads while mitigating the risks of cross-infection.

Remote technology has enabled hospitals to share their best resources over great distances. Thanks to China’s 5G networks, many Wuhan hospitals, have been able to connect with counterparts in Beijing, allowing experts in the capital to provide real-time consultation based on ultra-high-definition images.

China is leading the way in development of 5G technology

China is leading the way in development of 5G technology China is leading the way in development of 5G technology Image: Statista

Keeping 276 million students learning online has advanced the digitalization of education. In mid-February, the government ordered more than a quarter of a billion full-time students to resume their studies through online platforms - the largest “online movement” in the history of education. Hundreds of industrial internet-based online educational platforms now provide free-of-charge, individual live streaming services or share their open class content. During the Spring Festival period, Tencent Classroom alone added nearly 1.28 million new users.

Starting with remote offices, the digitalization of business and human resource management has moved up the agendas of corporate managers. Online collaborative platforms from Tencent, Alibaba, Huawei, Byte Dance and Baidu have been refined to meet surging consumer demand. Tencent Conference added more than 100,000 Cloud Hosts in only eight days between 29 January and 6 February.

Enabler: a new co-governance model for modern society

During this period a new type of social governance has arisen; one enabled by the industrial internet. Governments now actively engage partners to improve the efficiency and quality of municipal services. Empowered by digital tools, communities and people are active stakeholders in social governance. Co-governance, involving multiple participants, is emerging as a new model for today’s increasingly complicated society.

In China, the digital provision of municipal services infiltrates government agencies in many cities. The outbreak has expedited this process and agencies have digitized further. By 8 February, there were 100-plus municipal service “mini programmes” featuring epidemic status information. On WeChat, these programmes grew their users by nearly 60% in under 3 weeks.

Importantly, the industrial internet has empowered communities and people in the war against COVID-19. Through digital platforms, volunteer teams of residents within communities assist in disinfection and deliver supplies aided by digital community management and communication tools.

US cases of COVID-19 have now surpassed those in China

US cases of COVID-19 have now surpassed those in China US cases of COVID-19 have now surpassed those in China Image: Statista

In addition, the advent of the “Health QR Code” lets users submit information regarding travel to major epidemic outbreak regions and details close contact with infected people and other relevant information. A three-colour scale indicates the person’s recent virus-related health history, enabling them to cooperatively comply with virus-related prevention and control policies.

Through the “ACE effect”, the industrial internet provides a fundamental infrastructure for empowering individuals and organizations. Enterprises, government and individuals have all actively engaged in the war on COVID-19 through the advantage supplied by this technology and the advantage this creates has helped China to almost stop the outbreak.

What is the World Economic Forum doing about the coronavirus outbreak?


A new strain of Coronavirus, COVID 19, is spreading around the world, causing deaths and major disruption to the global economy.

Responding to this crisis requires global cooperation among governments, international organizations and the business community, which is at the centre of the World Economic Forum’s mission as the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.


The Forum has created the COVID Action Platform, a global platform to convene the business community for collective action, protect people’s livelihoods and facilitate business continuity, and mobilize support for the COVID-19 response. The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action.

As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched – bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.


The Forum has created the COVID Action Platform, a global platform to convene the business community for collective action, protect people’s livelihoods and facilitate business continuity, and mobilize support for the COVID-19 response. The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action.

As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched – bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.

These enabling capabilities will outlast the COVID-19 pandemic and make lasting contributions to the sustainable development of mankind. Tencent’s partnership with the UN, in recognition of its upcoming 75th anniversary, is a good example. The initiative will ask millions of participants worldwide how our planet should look in 2045 and what role international cooperation can play in solving our common challenges, both now and in the future.

For most people alive today, anywhere in the world, we have never faced a crisis of such magnitude. It is the first true test of our ability to stand together in the face of a common enemy.

Now is the time for neighbourliness, not hostility. Let this event serve as a wake-up call: our governments must be responsible to the people and enter into a collaborative relationship for the well-being of this and future generations. Should we lose, then we lose together; when we achieve victory it will be because we did it together.

Lau Sengyee, Senior Executive Vice President, Chairman of Group Marketing and Global Branding, Tencent

Source link


Read more:




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Saturday, December 15, 2018

How should China adjust its industrial policy?

Made in China 2025 will boost manufucturing

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201804/14/WS5ad15aa0a3105cdcf6518423.html

US misreading Made in China 2025 by design

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201804/10/WS5acbf11ba3105cdcf6517163.html


Made in China 2025: The domestic tech plan that sparked an international backlash
https://youtu.be/E7Jfrzkmzyc https://youtu.be/DQe61RNOttI

According to media reports, China is drafting a replacement for the "Made in China 2025" plan, with a new program promising greater access to China's markets for foreign companies and playing down China's bid to dominate manufacturing.

The "Made in China 2025" plan is a key concern of the US. The high tech products made by Chinese companies have been targeted amid the US-provoked trade war against China.

All major industrial countries have their own industrial policy that aims to promote high tech development, such as Germany's "Industry 4.0" strategy.

The intent in drafting the "Made in China 2025" plan is obviously justifiable. The discontent and concern it has stirred among the US and other Western countries shows the plan has unique implications for those countries.

The "Made in China 2025" plan emphasizes support to State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the investment of huge amounts of capital. China's private enterprises have faced difficulties for quite some time and there has been talk of a trend known as "the State advances while the private sector retreats." Therefore, it has become necessary and urgent to create an environment that provides fairer competition between SOEs and private firms.

The objections to the "Made in China 2025" plan made by the US have been beyond China's expectations.

Drafting the plan is a matter of China's sovereign right and China can totally ignore the attitude of the US and focus on its own decision. But China is now deeply intertwined with the world and there are practical reasons to mutually coordinate China's interest and those of Western countries including the US. Expanding areas of common interest is an important way that China has adopted to continuously move forward its reform and opening-up.

China will likely adjust its future industrial plan and policies accordingly while insisting on its right to develop the country's high technology sector.

The major direction of the adjustment could be granting the market a bigger role and creating an environment for fairer competition between enterprises with different forms of ownership.

Regarding whether or how China should adjust its industrial plan, we would like to analyze the key changes of the overall environment and the principles China should stick to in adapting to these changes.

First, the external environment of China's development and the dynamic of internal and external economic interactions have undergone major changes since the beginning of this year. We need to adopt a pragmatic attitude toward these changes and respond actively.

Second, external pressure has always been a driving force for China's domestic reforms. The more open China is, the more it needs to respond to external demands. China's interaction with the outside world is a result of the need to better realize national interests, rather than being pushed to make humiliating concessions in which sovereignty is oppressed. In the 21st century, China should no longer hold the belief that being tough and confrontational is more politically correct than making concessions.

Third, China's development must lead to win-win results for the world. This is the lifeline of our peaceful development and cannot be a mere slogan. China needs to be more open to the world, increase its momentum of development through expanding foreign cooperation, and bring more benefits to the world.

Fourth, China should not fear taking economic or political risks in further expanding its opening-up policy. Fair competition between all types of companies will force SOEs to reform. In fact, many SOEs are not short of funds, but lack a competitive management mechanism. By unleashing the vitality of various enterprises, China's technological innovations will usher in a new chapter. If a more robust development is achieved, we will have more resources to maintain the political cohesion of the country, avoiding greater ideological risks.

Reform and opening-up is the only path China should follow. We have achieved successful results over the past 40 years, as will we do in the future. We must effectively emancipate our minds and resolutely overcome all the difficulties on the road to success - this should be the motto of Chinese society from generation to generation.- Global Times

Related posts:

Photo: VCG China’s business people, researchers, scholars say they ‘feel the chill’ in US Growing China-US tensions have affected te...
https://youtu.be/3z58zHmz-6k https://youtu.be/17KDxqffVFI Professor Dr. Wang Former Executive of Halliburton DID HUAWEI VIOLATE 

https://youtu.be/rqRItBZOp5g Ren Zhengfei leads Huawei Technologies, one of the world's largest manufacturer of telecommunication h...

https://youtu.be/RACbXf27iQ0 https://youtu.be/JO31OG2IqZI Internet Protocol Version 9 第一代互联网 IPv9  Great news and why Washington.

https://youtu.be/pxU75SDWy1s https://youtu.be/k9PXahBL3k0 https://youtu.be/JJas9DSkJCo https://youtu.be/evd_q0AkKm0  A Lo.

How should China adjust its industrial policy?

Made in China 2025 will boost manufucturing

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201804/14/WS5ad15aa0a3105cdcf6518423.html

US misreading Made in China 2025 by design

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201804/10/WS5acbf11ba3105cdcf6517163.html


Made in China 2025: The domestic tech plan that sparked an international backlash
https://youtu.be/E7Jfrzkmzyc https://youtu.be/DQe61RNOttI

According to media reports, China is drafting a replacement for the "Made in China 2025" plan, with a new program promising greater access to China's markets for foreign companies and playing down China's bid to dominate manufacturing.

The "Made in China 2025" plan is a key concern of the US. The high tech products made by Chinese companies have been targeted amid the US-provoked trade war against China.

All major industrial countries have their own industrial policy that aims to promote high tech development, such as Germany's "Industry 4.0" strategy.

The intent in drafting the "Made in China 2025" plan is obviously justifiable. The discontent and concern it has stirred among the US and other Western countries shows the plan has unique implications for those countries.

The "Made in China 2025" plan emphasizes support to State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the investment of huge amounts of capital. China's private enterprises have faced difficulties for quite some time and there has been talk of a trend known as "the State advances while the private sector retreats." Therefore, it has become necessary and urgent to create an environment that provides fairer competition between SOEs and private firms.

The objections to the "Made in China 2025" plan made by the US have been beyond China's expectations.

Drafting the plan is a matter of China's sovereign right and China can totally ignore the attitude of the US and focus on its own decision. But China is now deeply intertwined with the world and there are practical reasons to mutually coordinate China's interest and those of Western countries including the US. Expanding areas of common interest is an important way that China has adopted to continuously move forward its reform and opening-up.

China will likely adjust its future industrial plan and policies accordingly while insisting on its right to develop the country's high technology sector.

The major direction of the adjustment could be granting the market a bigger role and creating an environment for fairer competition between enterprises with different forms of ownership.

Regarding whether or how China should adjust its industrial plan, we would like to analyze the key changes of the overall environment and the principles China should stick to in adapting to these changes.

First, the external environment of China's development and the dynamic of internal and external economic interactions have undergone major changes since the beginning of this year. We need to adopt a pragmatic attitude toward these changes and respond actively.

Second, external pressure has always been a driving force for China's domestic reforms. The more open China is, the more it needs to respond to external demands. China's interaction with the outside world is a result of the need to better realize national interests, rather than being pushed to make humiliating concessions in which sovereignty is oppressed. In the 21st century, China should no longer hold the belief that being tough and confrontational is more politically correct than making concessions.

Third, China's development must lead to win-win results for the world. This is the lifeline of our peaceful development and cannot be a mere slogan. China needs to be more open to the world, increase its momentum of development through expanding foreign cooperation, and bring more benefits to the world.

Fourth, China should not fear taking economic or political risks in further expanding its opening-up policy. Fair competition between all types of companies will force SOEs to reform. In fact, many SOEs are not short of funds, but lack a competitive management mechanism. By unleashing the vitality of various enterprises, China's technological innovations will usher in a new chapter. If a more robust development is achieved, we will have more resources to maintain the political cohesion of the country, avoiding greater ideological risks.

Reform and opening-up is the only path China should follow. We have achieved successful results over the past 40 years, as will we do in the future. We must effectively emancipate our minds and resolutely overcome all the difficulties on the road to success - this should be the motto of Chinese society from generation to generation.- Global Times

Related posts:

Photo: VCG China’s business people, researchers, scholars say they ‘feel the chill’ in US Growing China-US tensions have affected te...
https://youtu.be/3z58zHmz-6k https://youtu.be/17KDxqffVFI Professor Dr. Wang Former Executive of Halliburton DID HUAWEI VIOLATE 

https://youtu.be/rqRItBZOp5g Ren Zhengfei leads Huawei Technologies, one of the world's largest manufacturer of telecommunication h...

https://youtu.be/RACbXf27iQ0 https://youtu.be/JO31OG2IqZI Internet Protocol Version 9 第一代互联网 IPv9  Great news and why Washington.

https://youtu.be/pxU75SDWy1s https://youtu.be/k9PXahBL3k0 https://youtu.be/JJas9DSkJCo https://youtu.be/evd_q0AkKm0  A Lo.

Saturday, May 26, 2018

From Industrial 4.0 to Finance 4.0


https://youtu.be/Gs4_eurnrtU


https://youtu.be/GMMfxVxdlSM

https://youtu.be/Wkp5a7RZOsQ

MOST people are somewhat aware about the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The first industrial revolution occurred with the rise of steam power and manufacturing using iron and steel. The second revolution started with the assembly line which allowed specialisation of skills, represented by the Ford motor assembly line at the turn of the 20th century.

The third industrial revolution came with Japanese quality controls and use of telecommunication technology.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or first called by the Europeans Industry 4.0, is all about the use of artificial intelligence, robotics, genomics and process, creative design and high speed computing capability to revolutionise production, distribution and consumption. Finance is a derivative of the real economy – its purpose is to serve real production. Early finance was all about the finance of trade and governments to engage in war.


It is no coincidence that the first central banks (Sweden and England) were established in the 17th century at the start of the First Industrial Revolution. Industrialisation became much more sophisticated as Finance 2.0 brought the rise of credit and equity markets in the 18th and 19th centuries. Industrialisation and colonisation came about at the same time as the globalisation of banks, stocks and bond markets.

Again, with the invention of first the fax machine, then Internet that speeded up information storage and transmission in the 1980s, finance and industry took a quantum leap into the age of information technology. Finance 3.0 was the age of financial derivatives, in which very complex (and highly leveraged) derivatives became so opaque that investors and regulators realised they became what Warren Buffett called “weapons of mass destruction”. Finance 3.0 stalled in 2007 with the Global Financial Crisis and was only propped up with massive central bank intervention in terms of unconventional monetary policy with historically unprecedented interest rates.

We are now on the verge of Finance 4.0 and it may be useful to explore what it really means.

The common definition of Industry 4.0 is the rise of the Internet of Things, in which cloud computing, artificial intelligence and global connectivity means that cyber-physical systems can interact with each other to produce, distribute and trade across the world in a massively distributed system of production.

But what does Finance 4.0 really mean?

What truly differentiates Finance 4.0 from the earlier version is the arrival of Blockchain or distributed ledger technology. The best way to think about the difference is the architecture of the two different systems.

Finance 3.0 and earlier versions were all about a top-down or hierarchical ledger system, like a pyramid, in which trade and settlements between two parties are settled across a higher ledger.

A simple example is payment from Joe in bank A to Jim in bank B is finally settled across the books of the central bank in local currency. But in international trade and payments, the final settlements (at least more than 60%) are settled in US dollar finally across the ledgers of the Federal Reserve bank system.

Finance 3.0 was not perfect and those who wanted to avoid regulation, taxation or any official oversight basically moved trading and transactions off-balance sheet and also off-shore. This was the “shadow banking” system that financial regulators and central banks conveniently blamed on their failure to see or stop the last global financial crisis.

Although technically the shadow banking system is the non-bank financial system, which would include bond, stock and commodity markets, the bulk of illegal, illicit transactions traditionally was done in cash.

Welcome to the technical innovation called cyber-currencies, which was made possible for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions across a distributed ledger system (commonly known as blockchain). In architectural terms, this is a bottom-up system which technically can avoid any official oversight. Indeed, cyber-currencies or tokens were invented precisely because the users do not trust the official system.

As the populist philosopher Stephen Bannon said, “central banks are in the business of debasing the currency”. Hence, those who want to avoid the debasement of their savings prefer to deal with either cash or cyber-tokens like bitcoin (pic).

What is happening in the rapidly evolving Finance 4.0 is that as the world moves from a unipolar order to a multi-polar world in which other reserve currencies also contend for trade and store of value, the top-down architecture is fusing (or merging) with a bottom-up architecture in which trade, transactions and stores of value are shifting towards the P2P shadow system.

Why this is taking place is not hard to understand. Post-global financial crisis, the amount of financial regulations have tripled in terms of number of rules and complexity on what the official sector can regulate, which is mostly the banking system. It is therefore not surprising that all the innovation, talent and money are moving to outside the banking system into the asset management industry, which is much more lightly regulated.

No talented banker, however dedicated to the values of banking probity, can resist the temptations of working in asset management, away from the heavily regulated environment where he or she is 24x7 under regulatory internal and external oversight.

Another reason why the cyber-P2P business is flourishing is because the official sector is worried that further regulation would hinder innovation. But those who want to increase the complexity of regulation must remember that for every 50 foot wall, someone will invent a 51 foot ladder.

So competition in the 21st century has already moved from the physical and financial space into cyber-space.

If there is one thing I learnt as a former regulator, it is that if the banks are behind the curve in terms of technology, the regulators are even further behind, since they learn mostly from those whom they regulate. But if financial regulators deal with financial innovation through “regulatory sandboxes” where they allow their regulated banks to experiment in sandboxes, they are treating their regulated institutions as kids in an adult game of ruthless technology.

Time for the official sector to make their stand clear or else Finance 4.0 promises to be very different from the orderly world that they are used to imaging. Nothing says this clearer than a recent survey by the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, which showed that 54% of institutional investors surveyed and 38% of retail believe that a financial crisis in the next one-three years is likely or very likely.

You have been warned.

- Tan Sri Andrew Sheng writes on global issues from an Asian perspective.


Related


With blockchain’s rise, regulators must keep up with Industry 4.0 or lose control

 

With blockchain's rise, financial regulation must keep up with Industry ...

 

How Industry 4.0 will change accounting - Journal of Accountancy

 

Finance 4.0: Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution | Oracle ERP ...

 

Five ways Industry 4.0 financing unlocks productivity bonus - YouTube

 

Related posts:

 

What is Blockchain Technology, its uses and applications?


 

BLOCKCHAIN beyond Bitcoin

 

On Mcoin, Bitcoin and points of investment

From Industrial 4.0 to Finance 4.0


https://youtu.be/Gs4_eurnrtU


https://youtu.be/GMMfxVxdlSM

https://youtu.be/Wkp5a7RZOsQ

MOST people are somewhat aware about the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The first industrial revolution occurred with the rise of steam power and manufacturing using iron and steel. The second revolution started with the assembly line which allowed specialisation of skills, represented by the Ford motor assembly line at the turn of the 20th century.

The third industrial revolution came with Japanese quality controls and use of telecommunication technology.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or first called by the Europeans Industry 4.0, is all about the use of artificial intelligence, robotics, genomics and process, creative design and high speed computing capability to revolutionise production, distribution and consumption. Finance is a derivative of the real economy – its purpose is to serve real production. Early finance was all about the finance of trade and governments to engage in war.


It is no coincidence that the first central banks (Sweden and England) were established in the 17th century at the start of the First Industrial Revolution. Industrialisation became much more sophisticated as Finance 2.0 brought the rise of credit and equity markets in the 18th and 19th centuries. Industrialisation and colonisation came about at the same time as the globalisation of banks, stocks and bond markets.

Again, with the invention of first the fax machine, then Internet that speeded up information storage and transmission in the 1980s, finance and industry took a quantum leap into the age of information technology. Finance 3.0 was the age of financial derivatives, in which very complex (and highly leveraged) derivatives became so opaque that investors and regulators realised they became what Warren Buffett called “weapons of mass destruction”. Finance 3.0 stalled in 2007 with the Global Financial Crisis and was only propped up with massive central bank intervention in terms of unconventional monetary policy with historically unprecedented interest rates.

We are now on the verge of Finance 4.0 and it may be useful to explore what it really means.

The common definition of Industry 4.0 is the rise of the Internet of Things, in which cloud computing, artificial intelligence and global connectivity means that cyber-physical systems can interact with each other to produce, distribute and trade across the world in a massively distributed system of production.

But what does Finance 4.0 really mean?

What truly differentiates Finance 4.0 from the earlier version is the arrival of Blockchain or distributed ledger technology. The best way to think about the difference is the architecture of the two different systems.

Finance 3.0 and earlier versions were all about a top-down or hierarchical ledger system, like a pyramid, in which trade and settlements between two parties are settled across a higher ledger.

A simple example is payment from Joe in bank A to Jim in bank B is finally settled across the books of the central bank in local currency. But in international trade and payments, the final settlements (at least more than 60%) are settled in US dollar finally across the ledgers of the Federal Reserve bank system.

Finance 3.0 was not perfect and those who wanted to avoid regulation, taxation or any official oversight basically moved trading and transactions off-balance sheet and also off-shore. This was the “shadow banking” system that financial regulators and central banks conveniently blamed on their failure to see or stop the last global financial crisis.

Although technically the shadow banking system is the non-bank financial system, which would include bond, stock and commodity markets, the bulk of illegal, illicit transactions traditionally was done in cash.

Welcome to the technical innovation called cyber-currencies, which was made possible for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions across a distributed ledger system (commonly known as blockchain). In architectural terms, this is a bottom-up system which technically can avoid any official oversight. Indeed, cyber-currencies or tokens were invented precisely because the users do not trust the official system.

As the populist philosopher Stephen Bannon said, “central banks are in the business of debasing the currency”. Hence, those who want to avoid the debasement of their savings prefer to deal with either cash or cyber-tokens like bitcoin (pic).

What is happening in the rapidly evolving Finance 4.0 is that as the world moves from a unipolar order to a multi-polar world in which other reserve currencies also contend for trade and store of value, the top-down architecture is fusing (or merging) with a bottom-up architecture in which trade, transactions and stores of value are shifting towards the P2P shadow system.

Why this is taking place is not hard to understand. Post-global financial crisis, the amount of financial regulations have tripled in terms of number of rules and complexity on what the official sector can regulate, which is mostly the banking system. It is therefore not surprising that all the innovation, talent and money are moving to outside the banking system into the asset management industry, which is much more lightly regulated.

No talented banker, however dedicated to the values of banking probity, can resist the temptations of working in asset management, away from the heavily regulated environment where he or she is 24x7 under regulatory internal and external oversight.

Another reason why the cyber-P2P business is flourishing is because the official sector is worried that further regulation would hinder innovation. But those who want to increase the complexity of regulation must remember that for every 50 foot wall, someone will invent a 51 foot ladder.

So competition in the 21st century has already moved from the physical and financial space into cyber-space.

If there is one thing I learnt as a former regulator, it is that if the banks are behind the curve in terms of technology, the regulators are even further behind, since they learn mostly from those whom they regulate. But if financial regulators deal with financial innovation through “regulatory sandboxes” where they allow their regulated banks to experiment in sandboxes, they are treating their regulated institutions as kids in an adult game of ruthless technology.

Time for the official sector to make their stand clear or else Finance 4.0 promises to be very different from the orderly world that they are used to imaging. Nothing says this clearer than a recent survey by the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, which showed that 54% of institutional investors surveyed and 38% of retail believe that a financial crisis in the next one-three years is likely or very likely.

You have been warned.

- Tan Sri Andrew Sheng writes on global issues from an Asian perspective.


Related


With blockchain’s rise, regulators must keep up with Industry 4.0 or lose control

 

With blockchain's rise, financial regulation must keep up with Industry ...

 

How Industry 4.0 will change accounting - Journal of Accountancy

 

Finance 4.0: Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution | Oracle ERP ...

 

Five ways Industry 4.0 financing unlocks productivity bonus - YouTube

 

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