A Conversation on "Automation and Asian Labour Markets"

A Conversation with Ms Pamela Mar, Fellow at the Fung Global Institute at HK University, Hong Kong 

In her engaging conversation, Pamela Mar highlighted the significance of technological advancement in meeting the changing needs of consumers and the demands generated by the rise of e-commerce. She argued that the growth of automation technologies, robotics, and artificial intelligence has the potential to disrupt the reliance on low-cost manufacturing for achieving economic development in the developing Asian countries. Pamela also outlined other factors that are likely to impact development in Asia, and pointed out that business, policymakers, and civil society can help spur more sustainable growth in the continent.

Pamela Mar is a Fellow at FGI in Hong Kong, now known as the Asian Global Institute.  She has been researching and writing about the impact of automation on jobs in the Asian context. The subject of her talk at NCAER is of tremendous interest to observers in India, especially in the context of the ‘Make in India’ campaign launched by the Indian Government, and concerns about whether policy initiatives in this area are chasing a world of labour-intensive manufacturing that is fast disappearing. This has implications up and down the line for education and skilling initiatives in the country, for life-long learning approaches, and for how India rides its demographic tiger to prosperity or penury, having missed the great post-War manufacturing and trading opportunities that other East Asian countries and China have taken advantage of over the last three decades.