Kingdom signs agreement with head of World Economic Forum to drive development of 21st-century technology RIYADH: Saudi Arabia signed an agreement with the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday to establish a branch in the Kingdom of the WEF’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The center, the fifth in the world, places Saudi Arabia in the global Fourth Industrial Revolution network with countries such as the US, India, China and Japan. The deal was signed by Mohammed Al-Tuwaijri, the Saudi Minister of Economy and Planning, and the WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab. The Saudi center will be managed by King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology in Riyadh, in cooperation with WEF. The center, the fifth in the world, places KSA in the global Fourth Industrial Revolution network with countries such as the US, India, China and Japan. Schwab created the Fourth Industrial Revolution concept in 2015, to encompass technologies that combine hardware, software and biology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and advances in communication and connectivity. “To use the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution such as AI and blockchain, and many others, for driving economic development and social progress, we need global cooperation,” he told Arab News on Wednesday. “On the eve of its G20 presidency, we welcome the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia … to shape those technologies in a way that serves society.”