Hannover, Germany — “There are now as many pieces of digital information as there are stars in the universe.”

That statement from the opening ceremony CeBIT 2015, held earlier this month, means that developers have their work cut out for them. IoT, Big Data and security were major themes at the event, which has successfully refocused itself into a B2B venue and become much stronger as a result. In addition to technical growth, attendees watched history in the making.

At the opening ceremony, representatives from China took the stage, calling for higher degrees of international cooperation and guarantees of data security for every country. Addressing the attendees in a short video speech, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called for new levels of international cooperation in access to markets, and in protection of intellectual property.

Li said that for China to progress in the international marketplace, all nations (including China) need to build a framework for cooperation. He announced that he was initiating his effort to develop this framework by negotiating new levels of cooperation with Germany, starting in 2015.

China’s Vice Premier Ma Kai followed with a first-ever call for international standards and guarantees for data security, saying this was the only way countries will be able to drop barriers to trade. He went further by calling for stricter rules, not only on data privacy, but on protection for intellectual property as well. He noted that China needs to open itself to outside countries, but that this open policy needed to be met with mutual respect for the security of all parties.

Alibaba CEO Jack Ma told the audience that the future of the world will be supported by data, not oil, and he predicted that women will become a larger part of the workforce because the solution must be founded on wisdom. He said that the dreams behind the technology will drive the change in the world he sees coming.