World Economic Forum on ASEAN to be held in Vietnam

HANOI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The World Economic Forum (WEF) on ASEAN 2018 will be held in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sept. 11-13, the event's organizing committee said on Thursday.

WEF on ASEAN 2018 will feature entrepreneurship and the fourth industrial revolution, with the expected participation of ASEAN's political, business, academic and civil society leaders, as well as 100 start-ups which represent the very best of the region's dynamism and entrepreneurship.

The meeting will address strategic issues of national and regional significance under three thematic pillars, namely entrepreneurship to craft new approaches to regional and global governance, entrepreneurship to drive economic and business dynamism, and entrepreneurship to shape social inclusion.

In ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), the labor force is forecast to expand by 11,000 workers every day for the next 15 years. And yet, industrial robots now out-compete low-skilled manufacturing labor; artificial intelligence threatens ASEAN's service jobs; and self-driving vehicles are already at work in Southeast Asia, according to the WEF.

Established in 1971 as a non-profit foundation and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the WEF is 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. Enditem