The history of the revolution industry is beginning with the steam system and continued to the electricity that raises the first mass production. It continued into the third revolution as the automation era caused machine and robots can replace several jobs usually done by the human.
And today we are entering the fourth revolution industry, in which involving to machine learning algorithms that can learn and control the robotics. This system is also generating cyber-physical systems monitor the physical processes of the factory and make decentralized decisions.
The South East Asia Region responded to it positively and actively. It is showed from the Gartner Forecast that countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand spend the most on IT and account for roughly 80% of IT spend in the region and will spend US$52 billion on IT in 2015, with annual growth of 6%. This yearly growth is above the global average which only 4,1%. It is indicating that the SEA perceives the technological transformation positively as an opportunity.
On the other hand, this industry revolution also engenders another problem such as talent shortage problem and the readiness from the industry itself. According to the Human Capital Index from the World Economic Forum showed Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam positioned below the half.
Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore have the rank above 37 which Malaysia is the highest in the fourth place. This is becoming crucial because with the better solution from machines it also can endanger the job and capabilities of human that urge human to increase their capacity better than the computer.
According to the assessment from the World Economic Forum on the future readiness of Industry Production in a country showed that Malaysia and Singapore in a Leading Countries quadrant. But Indonesia and Cambodia still in Nascent quadrant which means had a risk in future and had limited current base.
It is showed in spite of the high investment on IT doesn’t guarantee the readiness of a country toward the revolution industry. It must combine with the enhancement of the human capital quality, good governance and the awareness of the citizen to see this situation as an opportunity, not as a threat.
Sources:
- Human Capital Index (World Economic Forum)
- https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/business/enterprise-it-spending-in-sea-to-reach-usd62bil-by-2018-idc
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/06/20/what-everyone-must-know-about-industry-4-0/#57201bd5795f
- Readiness for the Future of Production Report 2018 (World Economic Forum)