Bruneian attends Asean symposium in Thailand

BANGKOK (Borneo Bulletin /ANN) - The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) is expected to significantly transform the economies and societies of Asean.

The adoption of digital technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics dramatically changes the manufacturing sector, making it more efficient and productive. In consequence, labour markets shift too: Technology will displace workers from certain jobs, but it will also create new jobs elsewhere.

“Industry 4.0 is here and it is transforming the future, changing the way we do business. Things are unfolding and affecting business of global scale. Business enterprises, and industrial manufacturing companies with heightened impact of technology and innovation are vulnerable to job losses due to Industry 4.0,” explained Chairman of ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) 2019 Arin Jira in his keynote address at a symposium organised by ASEAN-BAC in cooperation with Regional Cooperation Programme for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (RECOTVET) in Bangkok. “How should we tackle the issue of skills development to ensure job security or to find other alternatives? If ASEAN member states do not think regionally, they will miss out on opportunities and fail to address growing challenges.

“For instance, the technological change is delivering exciting solutions to persistent problems, yet the disruption of jobs and social structures.”

The symposium’s objectives were threefold: to highlight the impact that Industry 4.0 will have on skills in ASEAN, to highlight the increasing need of public and private stakeholders to collaboratively develop the skill sets of ASEAN workforce, and to raise awareness about contributions that companies can make to prepare ASEAN’s workforce for Industry 4.0.

The symposium accommodated about 100 participants, mainly from business membership organisations and companies from all 10 ASEAN member states.

Representing Brunei was a council member of Institution of Surveyors, Engineers and Architects (PUJA) Bahrin bin Haji Mohammad, who is also a permanent member of the ASEAN Regional Working Group for ‘Business & Industry Cooperation in TVET’.

The symposium combined informative and inspiring inputs, peer-learning and open discussions among participants to address the above-mentioned objectives covering an outlook on the development of Asia; how technology affects jobs which outlined the opportunities and challenges that Industry 4.0 presents for ASEAN and described how these will affect ASEAN’s workforce presented by Elisabetta Gentile from the Asian Development Bank.

The symposium also presented ‘Technology and the future of ASEAN jobs’ and how AI impacts workers in ASEAN’s largest economies by 2028 and described the scale of the reskilling challenge these economies face which was presented by Director and Head of the Digital Transformation Office (ASEAN region) at Cisco Systems Nishant Dave.

Professor Dr George Spoettl from the University of Bremen, Germany outlined the role of public TVET systems in tackling ASEAN’s reskilling challenge which looked at the impacts of Industry 4.0 on TVET and skills development in the education sector. He described how education and training must adapt to new requirements, including through the establishment of alliances with business and industry.

The fourth keynote presentation took its lead from the Indonesian government’s ‘Making Indonesia 4.0’ blueprint, which emphasised the need for improvements in human resources through collaborative effort and offered key pathways for public and private sector actions.

The panel discussion touched on a study conducted by ASEAN Secretariat on the readiness of ASEAN member countries for Industry 4.0.

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