Dalian, June 25,2026: The world economy is experiencing an uneven moment. While artificial intelligence (AI) and other frontier technologies are advancing at unprecedented speed, global growth continues to slow amid mounting uncertainties.
This disconnection has become one of the defining challenges confronting policymakers and executives who have gathered this week in the northeast China coastal city of Dalian for the 2026 Summer Davos forum.
Under the theme “Innovating at Scale,” discussions have shifted beyond the race to develop new technologies toward a tougher task: how to move them out of labs to create better jobs, stronger economies and new opportunities.
“We are living through an age of exponential innovation,” said Mirek Dusek, managing director of the World Economic Forum (WEF), highlighting the urgency to deploy tech advances at scale to benefit as many people, economies and societies as possible.
The concern is reflected in the WEF’s latest survey of chief economists, of whom nearly nine in ten expect global growth to weaken over the next 12 months, noting that escalating geopolitical risks have significantly increased uncertainty and volatility.
Productivity gains, however, are expected to arrive more slowly. Although over 90 percent of the WEF surveyed economists expect AI adoption to accelerate, many believe productivity gains will take longer to materialize than previously anticipated.
“Innovators are developing the technologies and ideas that will shape the future, while businesses play a critical role in bringing them into the real economy,” said Dusek. “Together, they can create jobs, strengthen competitiveness and unlock new sources of growth. It is these conversations and partnerships that the meeting in Dalian is designed to accelerate.”
At the three-day event, more than 1,700 policymakers, entrepreneurs and scholars from over 90 countries and regions are focusing their attention on topics such as regulatory frameworks for frontier technologies, human-machine collaboration, and what lessons can be drawn from emerging sectors like low-altitude aviation.
As the host country, China itself has emerged as a closely watched case of innovating at scale, with high-tech manufacturing contributing up to 26 percent of the nation’s overall industrial growth last year.
Leveraging its vast market, large population and complete industrial ecosystem, the country has become one of the world’s leading examples in scaling frontier technologies, including AI and robotics, from the laboratory to the marketplace.
“Over the course of long-term innovation, China has forged a path where technological innovation leads industrial upgrading, which in turn drives further technological iteration,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang said when addressing the opening plenary of the forum on Wednesday.
He attributed the country’s innovation prowess to years of strengthening its own capabilities and relentless hard work, widespread application across industries and a robust ecosystem.
A number of dedicated sessions at the forum have spotlighted the country’s recently adopted 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), which places emphasis not only on developing frontier technologies but on creating the industrial ecosystems and application scenarios needed to turn them into tangible output.
China is particularly moving to boost six emerging pillar industries with ambitious targets, including integrated circuits, the low-altitude economy and intelligent robots. These sectors, approaching 6 trillion yuan (about 879.8 billion U.S. dollars) in total value in 2025, are expected to surpass 10 trillion yuan in 2030, according to Chinese authorities.
Just ahead of this year’s Summer Davos, the WEF announced 16 new additions to its Global Lighthouse Network, which recognizes manufacturers that excel in deploying advanced technologies. Over half of them are located in China, spanning sectors ranging from ship-making to smart logistics.
“We expect the forum to showcase China’s achievements in high-quality economic development to the international community, convey its firm confidence in opening up and cooperation, and share the broad opportunities brought by Chinese modernization,” said Gao Weiqi, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner.
Courtesy Xinhua
