The 4th Industrial Revolution & the Impact on the Marginalized Sector of SEA - Bangkok 2024

[Music] thank you it's great to be here and thank you for funding the commons for inviting us and being part of this uh very um forefronthealth.com entrepreneurship we also have a an Ma and a PHD in social Innovation and sustainability and some of our faculties and our students are here today so I'm going to take this as more of um of rather sort of a work in progress research report for you because I've been commissioned to work uh with 10 different countries in the region um working with the uh what is known as somwat which is the senior official meetings and social welfare and development committee um of the governments of the 10 different countries of aian in terms of looking at the vulnerabilities and looking at how fourth industrial revolution has its impact on the most vulnerable groups so whilst um the deck is coming up hopefully um strange connection issue between Compu ah okay no problem so perhaps I I think what uh I want to do here is uh tell you why we've actually embarked on This research in the first place and one of the reason is because there's so much so much um opportunities and potentials for fourth Industrial Revolution I don't know if this is the right crowd to be talking about the fourth Industrial Revolution because basically it means everything you know all technology um uh Internet of Things AI augmented reality virtual real reality all those things about automation so technological advancements is what is encapsulated in what is known as fourth Industrial Revolution in any case we've embarked on this project because amidst all these potentials and opportunities we recognize that there are definitely potential risk and harms and those who are left behind in this sort of Journey of advancements so this just AOS is quite critical within the region itself just because we see so many um people falling back and falling be falling behind um I'll probably uh share some findings but like I said it's still work in progress we still have uh a validation Workshop where we have to go through and that is basically bringing our stakeholders in to validate the points that we're making in the research itself this particular research is probably very preemptive of the fifth Industrial Revolution and as you know it's very theoretical now the fifth Industrial Revolution is more about the harmonious relationship between humans technology and their environment right so this is something that we as whilst we are conducting this particular research we recognize that it's not just about the presence of these Technologies but how it's interpreted how it's used how it's applied that's going to be making a difference to our society I think there's a real problem so I'm just going to go back to the conventional sort of mode and refer to my notes here um so uh basically um this is going to be um more about taking you to the macro level taking you into to the perspectives of what is actually uh quite unprecedented in in the in the sense that when you have all these OPP opportunities what actually happens is that um as our previous speaker has actually spoken there are those who are left with a lot of risk because when we talk about vulnerabilities it's something that is very transient it goes beyond boundaries but even in my um in even in my Endeavor to work with the government here they were very uh very insistent that we have to prescribe what vulnerability is and as you know vulnerability is very contextualized within the region you have countries being at different levels of development you have countries embarking on you know a different sort of population sort of landscape as well so countries such as Thailand such as Singapore we're in the Forefront of engaging in a very um aging population right going to the point of um super age pretty soon uh 2030 singap 65 um sorry 1/4 of um Singaporean population will be in their 60s right so this is something that is very critical but you have on the other hand countries such as Cambodia the Philippines Indonesia where there the The Surge of those who are um actually in their active youth you know um you have more of um the younger population engaging in technology more births happening in those countries so obviously the vulner vili and the context of vulnerabil vulnerability is very very different here so this in itself is actually playing oops this in itself is actually playing a very critical role in how we configure right the vulnerabilities which is most often sometimes often thought of as being just about uh the digital divide right um when we talk about for example sorry I'm just trying to move moved you forward with with the PowerPoint but it's not happening is it sorry oh okay sorry about the interruption So This Is Us navigating technology in [Laughter] itself okay thank you so much so um just bringing you up to date so um when we uh I was I was talking about V vulnerabilities have to be contextualized you can see that you know these are the sort of groupings that we have within the different countries but in our research itself we're actually um primed to talk about children youth elderly population and people with disability and obviously you see you know people in the informal sector being part of that vulnerability migrant workers even women as being categorized but we are sort of and I think this is probably the caveat of working um uh at the sort of more public sector sort of um level here when we have to prescribe some sort of uh research parameters I think it's unfortunate but we did have to sort of mention that in our research that vulnerabilities do spread and move forward and move over the boundaries of different at different levels um I was just going up about saying saying that the digital divide in aien is obviously there but what we found in this research is that it's not really and I think the points that I'm going to be making sort of resonate with what you already know as well but it is rather a confirmation for us and that is it is not just about access it's not just about access or having that technology most of the time what we found within this research is that it is about digital literacy some children for example having access to computers having to access to uh digital um devices do not have the protection do not know how to use it effectively or efficiently right and so this is probably one of the poignant things that we're going to be making in terms of our uh expression or our communication to the government and that is it is about the nuances that surround that digital divide you know um even access into terms of language even access in terms of cultural sensitivity these are things that need to be configured when we talk about digital divide not just about the separations of somebody living in the a rural setting and not having access to a certain device no it's not only about that physical sort of what you see on the surface level of divide so this is one important aspects about what we have and what we see and usually the new nuances that have been actually been um the the the repercussions of digital divide actually is associated with it with economic aspects you do see uh people wanting or incent being incentivized economically to to to be in the digital mode because they want money they want to have an earning you know and they are engaging in certain sort of aspects of trade but that actually renders itself into all these different forms of exploitations further risk further vulnerabilities right and so you see for example platform workers willing and wanting to engage in being uh you know gig workers right but because of that they are actually putting themselves in the informal sector of the of society and of the economy and and for that reason the repercussions is that when you become and as Thailand is there's about 70% of informal workers in in the labor market in in itself that speaks a lot about what they're going to be uh experiencing in terms of their own social protection right um you know not having anything to fall back on when there's health or when there's any um repercussions so being in the informal sector a woman actually you know embarking on these sort of online um uh sort of Engagement and then end up being for example online SE sex platform workers right so this is something that is actually making us really um critical that the journey to which one takes in terms of going and and engaging with the digital uh sort of device and and uh uh means is actually leading to what is known as adverse digital Incorporation and I think this is something that is very critical in the region itself um this I've mentioned already that you do see variations in different countries as to what's happening in terms of the vulnerab vulnerabilities present um and this the the demographic change in itself does speak volume because that means government and policies have to actually react and and and read what is happening in their own country right and they cannot just give some sort of um template as to what needs to be done but look uniquely specifically at the situation itself so for for our for children as the prime one of the primary groups in terms of our study we do see online exploitations we see we see that the skills are not enhanced to the level where they're able to actually embrace um that learning that they need right um I probably won't be able to go into all details because we've actually worked with 10 National Consultants going in into each country's program in terms of what's you know the available program there in each country uh but at the same time we do see gaps in in the different sort of um government policies in terms of elderly people it's a different context and a different kind of problem it is more about digital exclusion it is more about societal isolation not being able to keep up with whatever is being used in terms of technology in order to advance uh the social and economic levels of that country and in terms of people with disability it is more of the infrastructure it's the availability of um not having the right structure not having the right infrastructure in place to help and incorporate them in order for them to to actually Empower themselves uh in their work or in their profession so these are the different kinds of uh nuances that you see in the different kinds of vulnerabilities that do exist um right so I think uh as you see um there the research itself talks about several several scopes of challenges and we we see that um like I've mentioned earlier the point is that it is associated a lot with vulnerabilities that are not prescribed you know things that we need to think Beyond you know the level of just seeing it at the surface level and I think at this point um you do see for example what was being shared with our previous uh speaker in terms of potential policies potential programs potential activities that could benefit uh the vulnerable groups um migrant workers being one for example uh many countries trying to um uplevel the skills the skill sets of Childrens and all that uh having said that you do see all these specific um programs and our speaker on DEA actually also mentioned what they're doing in Thailand as well and um this is happening in different countries but the caveat here is that you do see real changes happening and I think that is at the same time what is giving us hope as to why technology is also benefiting those who are dealing with problems in terms of their vulnerabilities and the risk that they actually face um things like tele medicine which is really making an imprint on how medicine and healthc Care is actually going in into the different communities and Villages um so these are some of things in the Forefront of things you will see AI happening more so more pervasive and this is already seen in different um uh works of say for example equitech and also other International organizations that are integrating these Technologies inside um into their Works uh so to harness um fors potential and mitigate its challenges we want to make sure that there is access but like I said not access per se but just understanding the Nuance of that access as well that there is digital literacy combined with that access um providing learning opportunities for the workforce to adapt to changing requirements customizing the contents that's available the application that's available at the digital level so that they are culturally and linguistically appropriate some of the findings that we we've actually um embarked on in the research so far um so this is you know um in the overall sense of things I think it's very important that we have an actual understanding of the impacts and the opportunities and this is probably just a very uh sort of um inter it's it's at the initial stage of us doing This research but hopefully this research is going to bring forth more research in terms of what are the details that we need to work towards um this is what is actually envisioned in terms of the aan Secretariat in terms of what they want that 4ir offers the opportunity for the people to grow better connected to help economies grow become more competitive Empower aian citizens to improve their livelihoods through Digi digitalization the provision of basic social services and help social decarbonized to meet sustainable development change confronting the region I would say that having said all this I think it you know the importance of contextualization is very key here and I think at the ESS at the end of the day seeing the potentials and the harms and contextualizing the Nuance of it is very key social protection social social um intervention is probably the entry point here and I think um you know this is more about um how technology advances but at the same time I think it's very important to also think about those who are left behind who do not have other choices who are met with vulnerabilities when the others advance and move forward so with that note thank you very much thank you [Applause] [Music]