The key to increasing competitiveness is investing into human resources

This paper focuses attention on the fact that the V4 (Visegrad) countries in general are poorly prepared to capitalize on the opportunities offered by the fourth industrial revolution, and less protected against the risks created by it. First of all economic structural indicators prove that the economies of the V4 countries are still not knowledge based, and can be characterized by low value added activities. In some cases Poland stands out with slightly better results, but all in all V4 countries lag behind the economically more advanced countries for all the analysed indicators. Secondly these countries do not Invest enough into their human resources. The article suggests that unless the V4 countries start putting stronger emphasis on developing human skills and local knowledge they will lose a historic opportunity for becoming successful nations which are able to benefit from the ongoing processes of the fourth industrial revolution by moving up on the value chain.