Cisco CEO Robbins Advocates For Smart City Technology At MWC

Formerly 'IPED Player for New Site'

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Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins spoke at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Monday about the importance of driving innovation to make infrastructure ’smart’ at the city and national levels.

Robbins predicts that cities that embrace smart technology, including Internet of Things-boosted infrastructure and services, will have a leg up in attracting talent and retaining citizens as opposed to their "non-smart" counterparts.

’We think that cities are actually going to have more competition between them for the jobs in the future, for industry,’ Robbins said. ’Much like the companies that are going to be the winners in the future.’

Adopting new technology is crucial at the national level for governments and infrastructure providers as well, whether the country in question is the United Kingdom, Germany or India.

’2015 was a significant year where we saw country leaders around the world embrace the fact that technology needs to be at the heart of how they think about driving their agendas forward in the future,’ Robbins said.

The CEO added that investments in next-generation technology will create jobs within countries, but also enable those who have lost their jobs to machinery to learn new skills.