Are You(th) Ready? The Demographic Dividend Opportunities and Challenges Towards The Fourth industrial Revolution in Indonesia

Abstraksi

Indonesia recently enters the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution, in which at the same time Indonesia experiences a change in its population structure. The fourth industrial revolution is described a world where individuals move between digital domains and offline reality with the use of connected technology to enable and manage their lives (Schwab, 2015). The first industrial revolution, which was started in 1760, changed our lives and economy from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing (Miller, 2015). The second industrial revolution began in 1900 in which oil and electricity as the power mass production. In the third industrial revolution, electronics and information technology were implemented to automate production. The presence of the fourth industrial revolution provides its own challenges for not only the government and businessmen in Indonesia, but also youth because they are going to be the main part of the industry in the future. On the other hand, Indonesia is facing a change in its population structure, which is increasing in the working-age population and will reach the peak by 2030. By that time, the population of working age will have been reaching 70 percent of the total population. This condition was believed as the door for Indonesia towards a developed country. However, the presence of the fourth industrial revolution which was believed that will replace workers with machine and robots, will have been leading a great loss in employment since there is about 70 percent workforce of the total population by 2030. It will have been creating a ripple effect to societies, institutions, and economics. Failing to manage this condition will bring up a disaster to Indonesia. In this paper, we discuss the major features of the fourth industrial revolution, characteristics of demographic dividend, opportunities and challenges of demographic dividend towards the fourth industrial revolution in Indonesia.