中國掀機器人革命 或將提升經濟競爭力

China bought 90,000 robots in 2016, accounting for almost a third of the global total, and the robot revolution may raise China's economic competitiveness, according to a report released by Bloomberg Intelligence (BI).

彭博社智庫日前發佈的一份報告顯示，2016年中國購買了9萬臺機器人，約佔全球機器人購買總量的1/3，機器人革命可能會提升中國的經濟競爭力。

The number of industrial robot installations in China will nearly double to 160,000 in 2019, according to an estimation by International Federation of Robotics.

據國際機器人聯盟估計，到2019年，中國的工業機器人安裝量將增至16萬臺，幾乎比現在翻一番。

Due to its massive working population, China still lags behind regarding robot density. There are about 50 robots for every 10,000 workers in China, compared to the global average of about 75.

由於其龐大的勞動力人口，中國在機器人密度方面仍然落後。在中國，每10000名工人大約擁有50個機器人，而全球平均水平則約爲75個。

Automation is a sword cutting both ways. Robots may drive up productivity and economic competitiveness, but may also exacerbate income inequality.

自動化是一把雙刃劍。機器人可能會提高生產率和經濟競爭力，但也可能加劇收入不平等。

"Increasing use of robots should be bad news for medium-skilled workers," the report quoted BI economists Tom Orlik and Fielding Chen as saying. "Yet workers' wage growth in China remains rapid."

該報告援引彭博社智庫經濟學家湯姆·奧立克和菲爾丁·陳的話稱：“機器人使用的增加對中等技工來說應該是個壞消息。但在中國，工人工資的增長依然迅速。”

Wages of domestic manufacturing workers with a high-school education rose by 53% from 2010 to 2014, according to China Household Finance Survey Data.

根據《中國家庭財務調查數據》，在2010年至2014年，中國國內接受過高中教育的製造業工人的工資上漲了53%。