The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is a human revolution that shares a close link with its social environment, unlike the three other previous revolutions that were all about the relation between things that surround us and our interaction with them. This fourth revolution integrates physical, digital and biological aspects; by including the biological aspect this revolution turns into a revolution based essentially on health. Costa Rica has all that is necessary to take advantage of what this fourth revolution has to offer. Costa Rica wants to surf this new wave.

The First Industrial Revolution industrialized production and manufacturing processes thanks to the use of the steam engine. The second used electricity as a main source for mass production and the third used electronics and information technology to automate production.

This new revolution is based on three fundamental pillars:

  1. the boom in developing specialized software or techno-spheres;
  2. the interaction of these with humans;
  3. the autonomous and continuous process of this relationship.

The 4IR created a new industry and a new economy also called Economy 4.0. The Japanese believe the origin of this revolution was back in 2003 with the Intelligent Industry development. Meanwhile, in the US they believe it started in Silicon Valley when the human genome research was published and the discovery of epigenetics was made, also in 2003. In Europe they consider this process was initiated a couple of decades ago.

The 3D Printer became a reality more than 30 years ago and the metamaterials have been known for even longer. Some of the contemporary needs in our environment have already been satisfied during this industrial revolution process; nevertheless, we are far from experiencing its true potential. At the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the World Economic Forum located in San Francisco, California they acknowledge this and they aim to multiply its impact.

All sectors of society must commit to participating in this transformation process; refusing to be part of this revolution that is inevitable may have irreversible consequences, ie. being left out and not being able to take advantage of its huge benefits. Costa Rica has made efforts to participate in this revolution, but it must renew its commitment to intensify efforts to participate in it. The process of change and adaptation can be slightly painful. The most dangerous resistance comes from all those who are comfortably established in a model of traditional business.

All sectors will have to participate in the commitment to reinvent themselves completely. The relationship between education and the labor force will evolve completely, it is false to say that the labor force will disappear; however, it will be transformed, business will be reduced and diversified. Training will no longer be compartmental, sequential, and a rigid process. Major degrees will be secondary and certified skills will prevail.

Healthcare will be based on health promotion and prevention of diseases, while financial and insurance institutions will have to adapt to deal with high risk investments and situations that will be profitable at the same time. Attracting capital is key.

The 4IR is based strategically on the capacity of a community to collect and analyze large amounts of data and their ability to reduce unnecessary displacement of people using telecommuting, telemedicine, and virtual reality in education, among others. In this process, there should be a coexistence with the environment that reduces the social impact to the maximum, attempting not to leave anyone behind and be able to compensate those who were left behind.

State regulation will not disappear; it will become more flexible and it won’t be focused on useless bureaucracy, it will attend to effective supervision. Entrepreneurs and the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be offered facilities, including access to venture capital. This change will promote new business environments that will make encouraging the creation of entrepreneurship the main priority.

It is impossible to consolidate a real 4IR unless social inequalities are streamlined by neutralizing the environmental impact and there is an evident commitment of the state to promote it. Truly innovative state policies are needed. Costa Rica has shown that it is able to successfully materialize such initiatives.

Costa Rica is an example of creativity in this 4IR. For the last 151 years Costa Rica has provided universal basic education for both genders, allowing the middle class dominance at the beginning of the republic. Also, Costa Rica abolished its army 73 years ago and established a national agreement between the communist party, the Catholic Church and the government created 80 years ago based on developing social security, creating the University of Costa Rica and the Labor Code, amongst other initiatives that show progress.

Another example was how we developed the concept of ‘Social Economy’ during the 19th century, also known in Costa Rica as Liberal Corporatism or Solidarism since the 1940s. This is a rare form of cooperation between employers and employees in the twentieth century. Cooperatives are also very strong in Costa Rica.

Thanks to the aggressive forest conservation state policies, it was possible to produce oxygen to sell through an innovative process of carbon elimination. National debt was exchanged for oxygen. In Costa Rica, we recovered forest areas from 25% in 1940 to more than 53% of its complete territory, while the other 25% of the territory is officially protected as national parks.

The first National Park was inaugurated in 1955 and since then 30 National parks and reserves were inaugurated. The rest of them are private initiatives supported by international and private funding, the reason why Costa Rica was recognized by the United Kingdom with the Earthshot Prize. Also, it is important to mention that Costa Rica generates 99.9% of its energy production by using renewable resources such as wind, geothermal, and hydroelectricity.

Institutions and the social, health and safety national policies were very innovative throughout history as well. The list includes: national insurance services in 1924; compulsory footwear for minors; the Micronutrient Fortification Program in 1950; potable water for universal access from the 1960s; the development of roads and cemeteries; the seismic building code in 1974; the electrical code, the traffic police and universal access to health services since the 1970s; the identification document (ID) system; and the free zones or our massive production of medical devices, to mention just few.

In Costa Rica we believe we have avoided the ‘electric eye’ or ‘Big Brother’ phenomenon. A single ID number is assigned individually for every citizen in Costa Rica at the moment of birth. That means we have the same ID number as our insurance ID number and driver's license number. This ID number is used for work, study, voting in the electoral process and general living purposes. Everything related to this ID number is digital. We are close to having our passport linked to it as well.

Some other recent initiatives are being added to this process: the Single Digital Health Record known as EDUS, the bioTICA event that builds ecosystems in biotechnology or biobusiness and the CRBioMed Cluster that has been launched since 2016. The umbilical cord bank and bone bank, digital birth and medical certificates, the Invitro Fertilization Center, National Health Accounts System, and the Clinical Data Interoperability Council. We became members of the American Network of Cooperation on Electronic Health or RACSEL and will have our own National Genome Project lead by the CTBC or Technical Council of Clinical Bioinformatics, the active Hospital Research Units, the National Health Research Council (CONIS) and the public and private Ethical Scientific Committees or CECs, among others, are ideal to be included.

Because of all of that and many other things, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, unanimously decided to invite Costa Rica to become the 38th member of the organization in May this year. Costa Rica is the fourth country in Latin America and the first in the Central American region to be part of this exclusive, best managed governance practices group.

In conclusion, an invaluable way to ‘connect the dots’ is our best surfboard. Governments that create the political conditions of development necessary to strengthen and consolidate a 4.0 economy will be the ones that stay or make the leap towards development. Costa Rica must ride that wave and find the partners needed to enjoy it.