By Keilani Fonseca Coto - International Relations degree student
The world already has faced different Industrial Revolutions along the time and also various challenges that Industrialization brings along. Every phase of industrialization is different and focuses in a specific area, however, in all the regions the impact could be different depending on many factors, as economic status, development of the region, technology, political matters and more. Nowadays, the world is facing the fourth industrial revolution or industrialization 4.0, this phase of industrialization is based on the cyber physical system or digital revolution. But is Latin America ready for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its consequences?
According to Rave (2019), industrial revolutions trigger drastic and increasingly rapid changes, however, these changes do not arrive at the same rate or with the same intensity throughout the world. In the case of Latin America, industrial revolutions have arrived late with respect to Europe and North America, despite the fact that some places in Latin America are already trying and doing moves to join the Industrial Revolution. So, basically, the main challenge for Latin America is to successfully get link to the revolution, it is also an opportunity to catalyze the development and growth of the region. In order to achieve this and have positive consequences, the first step, which is crucial, is to raise public policies for the assimilation of the changes that are coming. It's really important to take the necessary measures, since this new industrial revolution can transform the world, the systems, and the process that we know, and we are not prepared yet for that.
According to a report presented by The World Economic Forum (2018), one of the biggest impacts would be on the labor sector, due to the automation of work and the disappearance of intermediaries, so a lot people could be affected. However, not everything is bad, jobs related to new digital skills and abilities will be created, this report tell us that the child in the future will be working in jobs that still does not exist nowadays. Another important point to have in mind its economy, we have seen new economic phenomena because the industrialization, for example the exponential increase in online sales, which creates the need to generate new economic dynamics, the cryptocurrencies, the commerce by online markets like the “Amazon Effect”. “The fourth revolution is breaking with the traditional schemes that supported the economic model, both from the management of monetary policies and from the transnational conception of trade and its regulatory gaps.” (Rave, 2019). Furthermore, there are other challenges, not only in economy or commerce, but also in security, both legal and fiscal, culture promotion for respect, entrepreneurship and innovation, and to improve education and the knowledge.
In conclusion, there are many gaps in Latin America that are big challenges, which we need to solve to regulate the impact of the Industrialization 4.0. All of this depends on organization, policies and measurements, and it applies for everything: the economic area, labor sector, commerce and also the social areas (education and culture).
