More automation would boost productivity, won’t cause job losses
The remaking of China’s manufacturing sector hinges on production with a higher degree of automation and artificial intelligence, experts said at a two-day manufacturing forum ended Saturday.
China’s factory sector needs to undergo a gradual process of shifting away from its extensive reliance on labor, Luo Jun, CEO of the Asian Manufacturing Association, said on Friday at the Seventh Annual Conference of Asian Manufacturing Forum held in Weifang, East China’s Shandong Province, as he advocated the modeling of Germany’s implementation of “Industry 4.0.”
The term Industry 4.0, first introduced at Hanover Fair in 2011, has since become the cornerstone of Germany’s industrial strategy pushing for computerization of traditional industries including manufacturing.
With the application of new technologies in manufacturing, the Chinese economy will experience a new round of restructuring and recovery, Luo believes.
His comments mirror rising concerns over China’s vast manufacturing sector, with recent data revealing worrisome prospects.
The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), covering mainly big State-owned enterprises, edged down to 51.1 for August from 51.7 the month before, while the HSBC PMI, focusing on smaller private enterprises, shrank to a three-month low of 50.2 in August.
Experts also downplayed concerns about the replacement of manpower by automation and robots in the world’s most populous country.
Speaking in an interview with the Global Times during the forum on Friday, Bernhard Thies, chairman of the Board of Directors of the DKE, the official German expertise center for electro-technical standardization, also said the application of automation and artificial intelligence that will be seen in China’s industry sector will not cause big job losses.
A robotized factory sector expected in the future may weigh on the unemployment rate during a specific period of time, but it is unlikely to be a cause of sustained unemployment as new ideas and professions would be created to tackle job losses due to the prevalence of automation, according to Thies.
“I don’t think it could really be a problem, because for the time being I believe that these new trends will still be [happening in] niche industries,” Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, director of Trade Capacity Building Branch at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, told the Global Times in an interview Friday, trying to allay fears of the predominance of machine over man.
But he noted that in the meantime the government should be responsible for designing policies and measures that would foster job-creating activities as well as sustainable and inclusive development of the factory sector.