Car industry wants new government to support applied research

An appeal to the future government concerning better support for applied research in the automobile industry was one of outcomes of the NEWMATEC 2016 conference which was held on Tuesday at Tale resort in the district of Brezno (Banská Bystrica region). Representatives of the Slovak Automobile Industry Association (ZAP) and carmakers would like to see support for this significant branch of the national economy included in the future manifesto of the Slovak government. "Changes to the education system need to be implemented as soon as possible. We have high-quality technical universities in Slovakia that have been created more or less as education centres. However, we must turn them into centres of applied research and innovations," ZAP president Juraj Sinay told TASR. A change in support is chiefly important from the viewpoint of the introduction of a new global system or philosophy called Industry 4.0, which should mean a revolution not only in the automotive industry. It should bring in 'tailor-made products', but also a change in the way that human resources are viewed. For example, in Germany the system would radically increase the proportion of robots in production immediately after its introduction in the automotive industry. The number of people engaged in the production process would go down by 36 percent. However, a key part of the labour force would be shifted in particular to the field of robot production, say experts.