Sarawak, which is currently on the Second Industrial Revolution (Industry 2.0), has no choice but to jump straight into Industry 4.0 – otherwise, it would be left behind and become irrelevant.

Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong, who said this, pointed out that previously big companies outsourced their production in developing countries like China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia due to cheaper labour, but the scenario would be different now as the work could be done by robots.

“All these products are actually made in developing countries but with Industry 4.0, things are going to be made by robots. But with the intro (duction) of robots, IT (information technology) and so on, all these industries would be taken back to their own countries. That would be an advantage for them because they don’t have to pay for the transportation cost.

“We have to be prepared as there would be less and less investment coming to Sarawak, to Malaysia, because they would take all these back to their respective countries, which would definitely affect all of us. But if we are prepared for the next five years from today, we can adjust ourselves.”

Based on his observation when leading a delegation to Germany in October, he said Sarawak had no choice but to leapfrog from Industry 2.0 to 4.0.

“This means that we need to have parallel programmes: firstly, how to tackle current labour force that doesn’t have the necessary skills or knowledge, which would create massive unemployment; secondly, to provide skills, vocational training as well as retraining the current workforce or else, they would become irrelevant,” he said at the launch of the #Innovate Sarawak Design Challenge 2018 in Tun Abang Salahuddin Islamic Centre (Pitas) of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) yesterday.

He observed that Germany is the only country with dual system of education, in which university students are called ‘apprentice’ and will be paid RM5,000 per month by the industry for 3.5 years.

“The students will spend three days in the industry and two in the university. This means that upon completion of their studies, they would be very prepared with the correct skills and have no need for retraining.”

Manyin hoped that the state could emulate this, but also admitting that the industry here ‘is not big enough’.

Another eye-opener, he added, is that the system is mandatory in Germany and has been in the legislation over the past several years.

“We don’t have the environment now – we are still at (Industry) 2.0. It is very, very scary but I don’t think we can say ‘wait, wait until we are ready’ because it will be here in the next two to three years.”

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by Irene C

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