Rising wages in Southeast Asia has always meant a need for a more productive workforce in order to maintain real income growth. However, the new competitors are not lower-cost countries but are, in fact, machines. In 2017, Quarter 3, Goldman Sachs pointed out that the average cost of a tier-1 Chinese factory worker was now more expensive than a robot. Indeed US Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang cites automation as a real issue to unemployment and what got Trump into power.

For more than 99% of the population in Southeast Asia, excluding Singapore, there is no university ranked within the global 300. The greater challenge is to create high wage jobs given the lack of high-quality educational institutions.

 

Topics discussed:

• Could the lack of the right education for the economy of tomorrow derail the Southeast Asian economic and social miracle?
• How are the education design, delivery, engagement, and payment models adapting and why is it working?
• The success factors behind the education unicorns of China and India and could Southeast Asia produce its own?

 

Soundbites

Jan Lambrechts – “I don’t know the degree of every single employee.”

Raj Shastri – “Democratise the education, desire is core.”

 

Watch the full episode here.