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Globalization: 4th Industrial Revolution

Overview of Revolution Technological change is advancing with unprecedented speed, scope and scale and with potentially far-reaching effects across economies and societies. Economic growth rates and capital market returns as well as productivity. The technological change is driven by automation and artificial intelligence. Exponential growth in these technologies will change economies and societies profoundly, looking into the fact that it affects all sectors of the economy, as reported by World Development Bank (2017) Technological advancement of 4th Industrial Revolution The focal points of the revolution is robotics, artificial intelligence, internet of things, augmented reality analytics, and robotic process automation, affecting all sectors of the economy. It is characterized by a range of technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, including economies and industries. For sectors like agriculture, the revolution goes from automated farm equipment to a wide array of Internet of Things, sensors that measure soil moisture and drones that keep track of crops have changed the business of agriculture. Experts from around the world at the World Economic Forum Conference (2019) reported that a digital farm is more efficient and sustainable than its counterparts of the past. They said that a smart, digital farm, crops were likely grown using precision agriculture, tractors might be self-driving, the harvest could be determined by digital imagery of the fields, and the farmer is typically working with an agronomist to provide technology. 4th industrial Revolution and Economy in Africa Africa is set in embracing the 4th industrial revolution despite being behind in terms of technology when in comparison with the rest of the world. International Monetary Fund (2018) reported that Gross Domestic Product for Africa reached an estimated 3.5 percent in 2018, about the same as in 2017 and up from 2.1 percent in 2016. African Development Bank (2019), Africa's GDP growth is projected to accelerate to 4.0 percent in 2019 and 4.1 percent in, inclusive of the contribution of ICT. This means that with the recent developments that come with the 4th Industrial revolution, Gross domestic product is likely to rise steadily by 14% in the subsequent years, suggesting the need for African states to strategically place themselves in order to take advantage of the 4th industrial revolution products. For instance, this can be done by developing and implementing regulatory frameworks that are aimed at protecting Intellectual Property for Africans.

Impact of 4th industrial revolution on Domestic Economy Currently, the gross domestic product of Botswana stands at P 96,513.Million as per the report by Statistics Botswana Gross Domestic Product Quarter 1(2019) report. Major contributors to this GDP are mining, Trade, Hotels and Restaurants, Finance and business services as well as the Transport and Communications sectors. In efforts to diversify the economy from the mining led- economy which constitutes about 16 percent of the total Gross Domestic Product, the president of Botswana has shown initiative to partake in the industrial revolution. Should such initiative be realised, the technology of 4th industrial revolution will increase the output to at most double the current contribution of various sectors to the economy and subsequently more than double the total Gross Domestic Product. However, embracing the revolution has its own downfalls. For instance, industrial 4.0 is aiming at transitioning from human labour to machine led labour, resulting in a complete loss for unskilled labour. This therefore suggests that for a country like Botswana, investing in Research, Science and Technology should be at the core as a way of providing a lee way for adaptation to the 4th industrial revolution. This also gives young aspiring citizens an opportunity to learn skills aimed at developing 4th industrial revolution products, resulting in improved growth of the country.