Technology has been the engine of economic growth since the Industrial Revolution transformed agrarian, rural communities in the West into industrial, urban societies during the 18th century. The steam engine enabled the growth of the iron and textile industries. The years before the World War I saw yet another burst of economic growth, as new industries such as steel and oil harnessed the power of electricity. The currently unfolding Digital Revolution is another period of advances in technology.
The nonprofit World Economic Forum (WEF) identifies these three periods as different industrial revolutions, and predicts that what it terms as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will lead to new ways in which technology is embedded in social life. Emerging technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and quantum computing, the WEF maintains, hold unique opportunities to improve human communication and conflict resolution. In this regard, 4IR is different from previous industrial revolutions that were mainly advances in technology.
For Southeast Asia, 4IR brings opportunities and challenges unique to the region as it contains countries that are on different points of development. In response, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and WEF issued a report in early November on how countries in the region and ASEAN can address the challenges and leverage the opportunities 4IR brings about. The two articles in Spotlight aim to start a discussion on 4IR in Southeast Asia.
Revolutions are by their nature disruptive. While 4IR will likely lead to great losses of unskilled jobs, it will also lead to creations of new jobs in fields we can little foresee now. The disruptive 4IR challenges governments in the region to do their job: educate the population, keep them healthy, help them increase their standard of living. Failure to do so will leave many parts of Southeast Asia lagging further behind.
