Indonesia Not Yet Ready for the Automated Era

Recently, around 10,000 toll road personnel in Jakarta were laid off after the government began to employ cashless transactions on major roads in the capital city.

“Based on data from [global consultant] McKinsey, by 2050, hundreds of millions of people around the world will lose their jobs; that will occur mostly in China, which is expected to lose over 200 million jobs,” Dino said in a speech at the 21st Supermentor event hosted by FICP in Jakarta.

According to state-owned China Central Television news network, Yangshan deepwater port in Shanghai, the world’s busiest container port, in December last year conducted trials on 100 pieces of intelligent equipment, including 50 driverless automatic guided vehicles, to handle cargo.

Qingdao New Qianwan Container Terminal in China became Asia’s first automated port terminal in May last year. The port reduced the amount of workers required to unload a cargo ship from 60 to nine.

Highly skilled workers will benefit from the technological changes but low skilled workers will have to compete with automated processes, Dino said.

While Indonesia seems to have a long way to go before a fully automated workplace becomes commonplace, the government should start preparing to create a balance between the workforce and profitability to avoid job loss. New approaches to education are expected to rein more innovative solutions to 21st-century workplaces.

“Nothing will change much regarding community empowerment if there is no change in education to adapt to the technology, which is currently thriving at full speed,” Dino said.