In addition, the risks and opportunities seen with regard to increasing potential of advanced manufacturing/4th industrial revolution become more pressing issues (OECD, 2017a). The development of technologies for the “next industrial revolution”, and in particular automation and robotisation has generated strong interest, in part due to the expected impact on services sector too (Manyika, J., et al., 2017; Arntz, M., T. Gregory and U. Zierahn, 2016; Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A., 2013). This adds a further important aspect to the discussion on economic transformation. Finally, with the aim of this research project being the analysis of the potential of the new generation of industrial policies (and in the case of Singapore – the ITP), the most important critical factor (and primary focus of the forthcoming analysis) will be dedicated to analysing the actions focused on skills and productivity pillars of the ITP. Skills in particular have been lately discussed as a prerequisite for the capacity of countries to penetrate global value chains and specialise in high-value added economic activities/tasks (OECD 2013; OECD 2017b; OECD 2017c) while transformation of jobs would ensure the realisation/utilisation of those skills, leading to the expected economic and social impact. Linked to all of the above and given that Singapore’s Industry Transformation Programme shall cover (through sector-specific transformation maps) 23 different sectors; the focus of this research exercise has been chosen to be precision engineering (PE) manufacturing sector. This sector is at the very centre of the interplay of the different trends and tendencies discussed above. This includes its links to high-growth additive manufacturing and robotics markets; its potential for developing manufacturing services as well as being the technology provider for automation and robotisation solutions targeted at both other manufacturing industries as well as services sector more generally. Therefore, the ultimate aim of the research project would be, via the analysis of the potential impact of the actions planned as part of Singapore’s Industry Transformation Programme in general and the Precision Engineering Industry Transformation Map in particular to get a better understand and insights in the historic tendencies of economic transformation towards services as well as forward looking tendencies (risks and opportunities) of the new generation of industrial and skills policies to facilitate and enable faster introduction of automation/robotic technologies and at the same time address possible negative consequence, caused by the wider adoption of those technologies.
1.1. Main research questions To satisfactorily address the research topic – analysis of the capacity of Singapore's Industry transformation programme (ITP) to meet the expectations, it was proposed to focus the research on one selected industry (Precision Engineering), to be contextualised within:
The macro-level discourse on falling productivity growth rates in developed economies, the increasing relevance of investment in intangible assets (and more specifically skills) and internationalisation; The general industrial policy context in Singapore (notably within the scope of the ITP) and other developed economies; The specific industry initiatives for the selected sector in other developed economies; The specificities of other industry sectors in Singapore (other ITMs).
Based on all of the above, a (re-)construction of the intervention logic of the reference ITM (within the overall framework of the ITP) would be carried out. It would map all major activities, dedicated resources, expected outcomes and the links between those elements. All the analysis will then be brought together to pursue an impact-capacity analysis, to judge the likelihood that the ITP and
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