Global Connectivity is 'Accelerating'

“All great global cities are melting pots,” Khanna told MIPIM attendees. (Photo: D’Halloy/I&Co.)

CANNES, FRANCE—“We are in the midst of an accelerating global connectivity revolution,`’ keynote speaker Dr. Parag Khanna told a MIPIM 2017 audience on Tuesday. Titled “How Connectivity is Reshaping Global Affairs,” Khanna’s presentation encouraged attendees at the world’s largest property market to focus on the infrastructure of connectivity—transportation, energy and communication—with a view toward the ways in which the global economy is breaking down walls between countries and regions rather than putting them up. He noted that in 1989, the same year that the Berlin Wall came down, the World Wide Web was launched.

“Every day, I hear that globalization is in retreat,’ said Khanna, bestselling author, CNN global correspondent and founder of consulting firm Hybrid Reality Pte. Ltd. “I see the exact opposite happening.” It’s a continuation of a process that has been underway for the past 60,000 years of human history, he said.

For one thing, he pointed out, “Trade relations are expanding across every single continent.” China is now the leading trading partner for twice as many countries as the US, he said, while on a global basis trade is not shrinking but optimizing, notwithstanding such near-term hurdles as the protectionist policies that the Trump administration intends to implement.