Dhanin warns of supply glut as robots take control of production

During his keynote speech at the Nikkei Asia300 Global Business Forum in Bangkok yesterday, the 77-year-old boss of the US$41-billion (Bt1.4 trillion) Thai conglomerate shared his vision about the future, including his beliefs that humans will be able to “fly” and live for 200 years, while autonomous and electric vehicles will become a reality.
“With today’s technology, tens or hundreds of times more goods will be manufactured than human [can produce]. I’m worried that there will be an oversupply of goods,” he said.
“It’s dangerous because robots can work 24 hours [a day], without having to pause.
“We have to think about how we’re going to deal with growing unemployment. Because people will be working only three days [a week] since [with technology] they can work from anywhere.”
He said the robotics age would allow firms including CP, which had established “no-human” factories in Europe, to invest anywhere in the world, without constraints such as workers’ rights and labour unions.
“Since there are no more unions, we will produce goods in the [global] markets and bring them back for selling in Asia,” the CP chief said.
Dhanin foresees good opportunities for the service industry, where robots could be used to aid elderly citizens.
CP is adjusting to produce food for elderly consumers, he said.
“[Elderly care] is a great business. CP just sent our people to study [it], especially at Itochu in Japan, where they have robots to help elderly people to live happily.”
Dhanin said the “Industry 4.0” era would present a great opportunity for Asean countries especially Thailand, where Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was embarking on new legislation, investment incentives, and various infrastructure to attract talent, biotech, robotics, software and next-generation automobile industries in the Eastern Economic Corridor area.
He said CP looked to benefit from information sharing between the partners from its recent acquisition of Citic, which it jointly took over with Itochu last year, as well as its acquisition of Ping An Insurance.
“What businessmen need the most is information. CP has to use money in this world, without limiting it to a particular entity. Some people may misunderstood that CP invested in Ping An and it will use Ping An’s money,” which explains the investment in Ping An, he said.
The CP chief reaffirmed his belief that the US economy will recover fastest and it will retain its global economic leadership thanks to its leading-edge technologies.
But he added: “Japan is full of technologies, especially in biotech, robotics. It has a chance to surpass the US if it can adjust to become more agile and dare to take some risks.”
He said China’s economy could also recover quickly, since it still had a lot of room for improvements, it was a young economy, and had stable politics that allowed continuity of execution.