Industry 4.0. and the Competitiveness of Exports in EU

EU, China and USA are biggest global exporters of goods. If export is observed by country, Germany is ranked as third world exporter, behind China and USA. Netherlands, France, Italy and Great Britain that are among top 10 world exporters, also have significant impact on world export. Specialty of EU export is that it mostly takes place between EU members. Only 30% of total EU export is related to external markets.
Majority of developed countries, among them leading exporters, taking significant steps towards reindustrialization and endeavor to keep up with main global competitors. To achieve it, export and export competitiveness are highly important because international trade creates 20% of world GDP. Reindustrialization is based on digitalization, industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is a concept of connectivity and communication between machines, people, products and business systems using ICT. Results until now prove that companies which started to digitalize its production processes and applying industry 4.0 show same level of competitiveness on world market like competitors from other countries and provide direction for development of industry in all EU members. Industry 4.0 contributes to growth of gross added value of production but in the same time requests big financial assets for its implementation.


This research is expected to provide answers on following questions: 
1.How does digital industry impact on economic growth and competiitveness of economy?
2.Will application of industry 4.0 positively impact on export competitiveness?
3.How will industry 4.0 impact on employment, development of education systems and production resources? 
4.How will EU finance implementation and application of industry 4.0 in member countries? 
5.Will industry 4.0 reduce or increase development gap among member countries?