MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin believes that the fifth industrial revolution could take place in the next 10-20 years, and it is important for the country to introduce new technologies in order to consolidate its leading position in the world, he said on Thursday at the New Knowledge seminar at the sixth Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

"There were 100-120 years between the first and the second industrial revolution. There were only 50-70 years between the second and third. The fourth happened about 20-30 years after the first. I'm not ruling out the possibility that the fifth will take place before our very eyes, in the next 10-20 years. It is possible to consider that the energy transition could be the fifth industrial revolution," Mishustin said.

According to him, changes are now occurring during the life of a single generation. "We need to be prepared for the fact that we will have to live in an era of changes," he said, adding that in order to respond to current challenges, it will be necessary to study all our lives, to be open and receptive to new things. Modern society is only "at the origins of the fourth industrial revolution," and it needs to go a certain way to understand the changes in recent years and rethink how different systems of society will behave under the new conditions. "By understanding how this works, we will be able to avoid the revolutionary changes that accompanied all the previous technological transitions," Mishustin said.

Historically, Mishustin said, several technological transitions, and the development of technologies led to a change in relationships between people, which ultimately led to a change in the socio-historical formation. "As historical experience shows, the main beneficiaries of technological transitions are those people and countries that were able to put new technologies at their service earlier than others, and transition to secure a leading position," he said.