In the next five years, Zhejiang province in China will be investing 500 billion yuan in an attempt to encourage manufacturers to adopt an increased number of robots. In turn, this will help in overcoming the shortage of supply, as well as high cost of labor in the country.
The new program is currently underway and it has an aim to help at least 5,000 companies on a yearly basis. Information on the development was given by a source with the investment division of the Zhejiang Economic and Information Commission, however, not many details were revealed for now. The commission went on to say that the most effective way to handle the labor shortage and rising costs of labor is to replace humans with robots.
The average labor costs from 2005 to 2012 in Zhejiang province has tripled from 14,847 yuan to 41,370 yuan per year. This is an annual increase of about 16 percent. In May 2013, the commission conducted a survey in which 75 percent of respondents said that rising costs of labor were the main reason for introducing robots.
If this kind of strategy is adopted by large enterprises in the province, the labor shortage will most likely be reduced by 700,000 workers, which will save 29 billion yuan in labor costs per year. On the other hand, experts have ruled out that there is a possibility of triggering job losses with the introduction of robots.
Photo Credits: China Mag
