Bangladesh is home to 169.4 million people and is considered to be the eighth most populous country in the world. Bangladesh is considered to be a developing nation and it highly aspires to be an upper middle-income country by the year 2031.
With the emergence of the 4IR (Fourth Industrial Revolution) which mainly comprises of artificial intelligence, 3D printing, blockchain, robotics and many other revolutionary advances that are being made with time, we can see Bangladesh trying to tirelessly grapple with the changing and fast paced surroundings and trying to keep up with the pace of it. The very term 4IR, refers to the digital revolution based on information technology and it thrives to integrate and congregate artificial intelligence, data, machinery and communication and in turn create a diligently working eco system that is not only automated but is intelligent.
But if the imperative characteristics of 4IR is implemented in our country, we have to further dig down the hole and consider issues like our culture, norms and our economic and political capacity of our country. In Bangladesh we have some challenges that needs to be faced and resolved and they are namely, poor infrastructure, expensive installation of technologies, maintaining the availability of cheap labor and lack of knowledge.
Automation and artificial intelligence which are key components of the Fourth Industrial Revolution will have a significant impact on the agriculture, health, education, manufacturing and many other multifarious areas of our country. This definitely will create a big challenge for all the ministries to get together and ensure effectively that they are playing out their part to prepare Bangladesh to ride this humongous and impactful wave of change as this is indeed a challenge of global magnitude.
If the essence of artificial intelligence is to be understood from the context of our country, Bangladesh is a place which offers skilled manpower and has a growing manufacturing base and also provides a creative entrepreneurial class. Bangladesh is now in the position to take advantage of 4IR, as fortunately our leadership is positively cognizant of the advantages of this high paced and advanced revolution and additionally the country under the current leadership has set 18 development targets to be acquired by 2030 under the UN’s Sustainable Goals (SDG’s).
A very recent study has displayed this that automation will substitute 800 million unskilled workers worldwide by 2030 and both developing and developed countries will face immense challenges due to this, albeit developing nations will be subjected to tougher and more dire situations due to the lack of advanced technologies and skilled human resources. As per the Oxford Internet Institute, Bangladesh is the second largest supplier of online freelance labor and in a UNIDO report, Bangladesh was mentioned as a country having the most promise in terms of leapfrogging into smart factories. In order to keep up with the drastically changing environment, Bangladesh will need to level up their skills in the field of automation and will need to diligently leverage training institutions and local skills. Given our current manufacturing base, we can make use of staring with 4IR related service startups and customizing existing models to suit the local conditions. Bangladesh enjoys the status of having a huge power in the RMG sector, and for the record our country has bagged the second position again in the global apparel export market in 2021. Sticking to the aforementioned note in regards to the RMG sector, Bangladesh can capitalize on using blockchain technology to record, track and trace the garment shipments. This type of innovative and advanced technology will in turn boost up the confidence levels of the consumers about their source and compliance with the best practices under safety and human rights and other stakeholders like even the producers will receive a big benefit as consumers as a result will be prepared to pay a premium for the end product.
In the field of education, the government will need to build a strong connection in between the education and the labor market and put greater emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This will entail the training of young minds and will lead to the burgeoning up in the sector of practical education and training in accordance with the new emerging technologies. A lecturer of Jagannath University has opined that our education is quantitative as opposed to qualitative and we will need to put greater attention on STEM to conduct lifelong learning and blended instruction and optimization of flipped and online courses where teachers will need to equip their students with the relevant knowledge and brace them to face the upcoming challenges that will be posed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The government will also need to address issues like personalization of education which will in tun touch upon issues like lower costs, greater profits, design for an individual’s changing needs, and also matters like specialization of education that will need to put emphasis on advanced technological knowledge.
Some inevitable challenges that the country will face with the growing demand to meet the standards of 4IR, are gender discrimination, cybercrimes, inequality, the dominance of MNC’s over SME’s will significantly increase. But if we look at the glass half full then we will notice that Fourth Industrial Revolution will bring about some positive changes too, like women empowerment, citizen empowerment, sustainable ICT development, etc.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I would like to mention that 4IR will be like a double-edged sword for us, posing its potential threats and offering its hand of help and opportunities for the country. In order to make use of the raging technological revolution, the government of Bangladesh will need to come up with effective policies along with defined and efficient plans in the present time. And the policies of this ground breaking revolution will require integration of Universities in our country to conduct proper research on this matter and enhance their knowledge about it. The government can also make policies that will enable and encourage the local industries to collaborate with educational institutions and also for the private sector to work alongside the government. The private sector has a pivotal role to play by mobilizing and enhancing the skills and aptitudes of human resources in accordance with the needs of the job market both in Bangladesh and internationally. And Bangladesh will be well braced to tackle the challenges of the 4IR (Fourth Industrial Revolution) if only they take the relevant measures in time and strike a proper balance between the various institutions that will steer a path for this country to reach newer heights and ace in the field of artificial intelligence and automation.
Tasnim Hasan Saara is a lecturer of Law at the North South University
