The 4th Industrial Revolution

Part 1

“THE FOURTH Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), which will be all about advanced analytics, big data, robotics and automation, artificial intelligence, internet of things and process digitization across the business value chain.” (Joseph Alexander, “Faster, cheaper data key to 4th Industrial Revolution”, Commentary, Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 27, 2019). -oOoThe Philippines must be ready to this “Revolution” to be globally competitive in the coming years. Most, if not all, our institutions especially our educational system must be upgraded to be more relevant to the needs of the times. Per info, India, could be our model in these challenging innovations to our industrial development.

In my 1999 book titled “Pricks of Conscience”, included a topic on “Career Guidance 2000”. I wrote then: “The fields that our young people should focus on are: 1) Telecommunication, 2) Computer hardware and software, 3) Robotics, 4) Pharmaceuticals, 5) Biotechnology, 6) Instrumentation, 7) Medical Technology, 8) Health Care, 9) Environmental Industries, and 10) Research and Development (R&D).” How futuristic my humble suggestion was.

Today that’s what our nation badly needs in this era of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Faustino C. Icatio, Jr’s “How to break PH’s technology freeze” recent article in the commentary column of Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 2, 2019, wrote about the importance of Research and Development for technological advancement. He said: “Translating concepts into real products in the field of natural science research involves creativity, which is a proactive skill that, under ideal conditions, can be learned at will, and employs actual materials, tools and processes. All innovations are products of creativity.” However, he pointed out the sad state of our Research and Development Programs due to utter lack of investment in such crucial undertaking especially in this age of rapid technological advancement.

Per Icatio, Jr., “the Philippine R & D expenditure is one of the lower in the region and in the region in the world. When expenditures are ranked according to per capital or percentage of gross domestic product. Among Asean countries, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are spending more for R & D than we are.” TO BE CONTINUED