Innovation-driven Development

A few weeks ago I was honored to participate in the Bo’Ao Forum for Asia, an annual development conference held each year in Hainan, China, attended by over 2,000 delegates consisting of government officials, business leaders and academia from across the Asia Pacific region.

Our discussions centered around Asia’s immense potential for future growth. Within the next two years, the majority of this growth will be led by digital products and services, pushing Asia to account for more than 40 percent of global GDP by 2030.

With such optimistic forecasts, questions were also raised on how governments and businesses can collaborate to accelerate growth, the first challenge being how to navigate the current shift from analog-to-digital.

We are seeing immense growth driven by advanced technology, with future growth dependent on countries and companies’ ability to adapt and stay ahead of the curve. The manufacturing industry is a perfect example of this trend.

The Asia Pacific region is a manufacturing powerhouse, with China constituting 24% of the world’s manufacturing, more than the US (17%) or EU (19%). Emerging markets such as Indonesia are already modeling China’s success. This year the Indonesian government identified manufacturing as the number one driver for future economic growth, following a joint research report between the Asian Development Bank and their National Development Planning Agency. In response, Indonesia’s policymakers have focused investment on this sector with a projected 6.31 percent growth rate in the next five years.

As the manufacturing industry looks to the future, its success will require innovation, incentives and training. Early adoption of technologies like automation, AI and 3D printing will allow for higher productivity which leads to lower production costs, greater profit margins, cheaper goods, increased consumer spending power and more higher value jobs.

The case for 3D printing

3D printing is already showcasing the financial and sustainable benefits of digital transformation.

Through creating objects from successive layers of materials rather than the traditional method of creating a mold and trimming away excess materials, the 3D printing process allows for faster innovation cycles and reductions in capital costs. These benefits are also passed on to the consumer in the form of lower prices, higher quality and mass personalization.

For example, in Japan, we partnered with Mutoh Industries, a local large format printer manufacturer that has applied HP 3D printing technology to create pen holders for their large format printers. Digitization has allowed Mutoh to produce quality parts while lowering production costs, shorten supply chain and improve inventory management.

3D printing can also help unlock Asia’s ambitious environmental goals by reducing carbon emissions and elimination of production waste and excess inventory.

The advantages of 3D printing have incentivized adoption year over year, with the 3D printing market forecasted to produce $21 billion USD globally by 2021.

While automation and digitization are often perceived to be the culprit of job loss, in actuality, there is possibility for labor to be transformed rather than displaced. An opportunity exists to off-set lower skilled job losses by equipping the workforce with skills tailored for new technologies.

In the future, we will likely see fewer workers but more technologically savvy workers. This will mean fewer low-skilled and lower-paid jobs and more higher end jobs for employees with advanced skills in information technology.

Partnering together for prosperity

For Asia to transform manufacturing, governments, educational institutions and companies need to step up and play an integral role in adopting and jointly developing disruptive technologies.

Retraining and reskilling the workforce will require collaboration. Governments will need to step in and address the emerging skills gap. Policymakers can support new technology investment through tax breaks, grants and funding that foster innovation and catalyze the market. Businesses can also pitch in through public-private partnerships that focus on education and incentivize value-added production.

For example, in Singapore, we partnered with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to create Asia’s first Corporate Innovation Lab aimed at driving innovation, technology and skills critical for accelerating industry transformation. There are more than 100 researchers and staff dedicated to digital manufacturing technologies that focus on advancing 3D printing and other disciplines that will serve industry and society. The HP-NTU lab has launched 15 projects to better understand and develop advanced polymers for manufacturing applications, bioprinting models, and Artificial intelligence and machine learning to assist printers in autonomously predicting and resolving issues.

In India, we have a memorandum of understanding with Andhra Pradesh Innovation Society and the Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board to commission a Centre of Excellence (COE) for additive manufacturing. The new COE will grant greater accessibility to HP’s 3D printing services, providing SMEs and start-ups the opportunity to learn and adapt advanced technologies and digitally transform their businesses.

Everyone has a role to play in the future growth of our region. To ensure Asia seizes the immense economic opportunity presented by digitization, it is important for governments and businesses to collaborate, embracing new technologies for a better future.