In to the article considered problems, delivered data in to the article But. V. Akimov Street, published version in N 1 log number behind 2015 g. Shown "answers" companies by production facilities products ICTs and IT services in countries Asia on challenges automation systems and robotization. Countries and the company they adapt to new labor-saving technologies; in more difficult position they turn out to be people, employed people in area of interest IT.

words: Key Information and communication technologies (ICT), the tradable services revolution, information technology (IT), IT services, business process outsourcing, Asian countries, robotics, automation, IT services.

One of the most significant events in the world of technology in 2014 was a breakthrough in the development of robotics and an impressive increase in robot sales, which was timely mentioned in the article by A.V. Akimov [Akimov, 2015]. Developing countries in Asia have become the leading exporters of ICT goods and services, but today they face new challenges such as robotics and automation. How can the latest trends in the development of labor-saving technologies affect the production of ICT goods and services in Asian countries?

From the 1960s to the 1970s, labor-intensive, export-oriented manufacturing industries (often not a complete production cycle, but rather individual stages, such as the assembly of electronic devices and the production of individual components) began to move to developing countries, primarily to Asian countries. First, electronics production began to be located in South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, later-in China, Thailand, the Philippines, and since the 1990s-in Vietnam.

In the 1990s, white-collar jobs - banking and office workers-began to move from Western countries to developing Asian countries. In the context of the information and communication revolution (ICR), a "tradable revolution" of services took place, and many services that, by their very nature, were not tradable (i.e., did not participate in international exchange) became objects of international trade. Moreover, the service sector has expanded to include those operations that used to be part of the production process at the enterprise (accounting, commercial documentation, working with claims). These operations have become outsourced, and they can be contracted out to companies specializing in such services within the country or abroad. American and British companies transfer these operations, for example, to India and the Philippines, French companies to Morocco and Senegal, and companies from the Arab states of the Persian Gulf to Egypt and Jordan. In all these cases, we are talking about using a cheaper and sufficiently skilled labor force than in the customer's countries. This model of the International Division of labor (IDP), in particular

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Table 1

countries, ICT . Goods Exports (USD , %)

Years

2000

2005

2013

Regions

billions of dollars.

%

billions of dollars.

%

billions of dollars.

%

All countries

999.9

100

1375.3

100

1921.6

100

Developed countries

569.9

57.1

605.2

46.1

520.0

27.1

Transition countries*

0.8

0.1

0.8

0.06

3.6

0.2

Developing countries

429.2

42.9

769.3

55.9

1398.0

72.8

African countries

1.1

0.1

1.9

0.1

3.2

0.2

Latin American countries

38.9

3.9

44.9

3.3

66.1

3.4

Asian countries

389.2

38.9

722.5

52.5

1328.6

69.1

East Asia

216.8

21.7

493.5

36.0

1040.9

54.2

Southeast Asian countries

170.4

17.0

219.2

15.9

279.0

14.5

South Asian countries

0.9

0.1

1.3

0.1

5.4

0.3

West Asian countries

1.2

0.1

8.5

0.6

3.3

0.2

Compiled and calculated using: [http://unctadstat.unctad.org/wds/TableViewer/tableView.aspx=15850] (12.04.15)

* In UNCTAD statistics, transition economies include the CIS countries (including those that have suspended their membership) and the countries of South-Eastern Europe (Albania and non-EU countries from the former Yugoslavia).

It is based on the use of comparative advantages of countries, which was described by David Ricardo, a representative of the English classical political economy (Krugman and Obstfeld, 2004, pp. 29-31). Developing Asian countries in this MRI have moved from the role of the raw material periphery of the developed world to the role of suppliers of industrial products and services of a post-industrial type.

China, India, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia have actively joined ICR and become leading exporters of ICT products (computer, telecommunications, audio reproducing equipment, video equipment, electronic components, and other goods).

The share of developing Asian countries in global exports of ICT goods has steadily increased: from 32% in 1996 to 38.9% in 2000, 52.5% in 2005 and 69.1% in 2013. The share of all developing countries in these exports increased from 42% to 72.8% in 1996-2013 (see Table 1 [Information Economy Report, 2007, p. 136]).

In 2013, developing Asian countries accounted for 66.0% of global exports of computer equipment and peripherals, including 41.6% to China, 8.3% to Hong Kong (PRC), 3.5% to Singapore, and 3.0% to Malaysia. In the global export of telecommunications equipment, which has been growing especially rapidly over the past few years due to the mobile revolution and the mass adoption of smartphones, the share of developing Asian countries reached 69.0% in 2013, including China-38.1%, Hong Kong (PRC) - 14.1%, the Republic of Korea-5.6%, Vietnam (ranked fifth in the world) - 4.7%, Taiwan-2.5%.

The South Korean Samsung brand is one of the leading brands in the world. But if you look closely at the Samsung equipment, then you can see from the labels and instructions that it is produced mainly in China, and today it is already in Vietnam. Taiwanese mobile phone brands are also known, such as NTS, but they are also more often manufactured in China.

As for the new industrial countries of Asia of the first echelon - the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Singapore-today they are primarily exporters of electronic components that are used to assemble finished products in other countries.

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Table 2

2000-2013 Asia, Developing countries from ICT, Goods Exports (USD billion )

Products

2000

2005

2010

2013

Regions

All countries

ICT products

999.9

1375.3

1722.5

1921.6

Comp. and perif. devices

367.2

474.1

499.6

515.1

Telekom. equipment

154.7

218.7

333.4

461.8

Consumer electronics

105.7

182.0

229.6

205.7

Electronic components

321.9

392.3

574.3

657.7

Developing countries

ICT products

429.2

769.3

1160.0

1398.0

Comp. and perif. devices

166.7

268.2

347.9

359.9

Telekom. equipment

38.5

97.6

217.2

338.9

Consumer electronics

57.6

113.3

138.0

133.9

Electronic components

146.9

228.8

402.2

512.4

Developing countries in Asia

ICT products

389.2

722.5

1091.3

1328.6

Comp. and perif. devices

152.8

254.8

330.7

340.0

Telekom. equipment

28.6

85.1

196.1

318.8

Consumer electronics

47.9

99.4

113.0

112.3

Electronic components

142.6

224.3

397.9

506.0

Countries

China

ICT products

44.1

234.1

459.5

605.8

Comp. and perif. devices

17.9

109.1

196.9

214.1

Telekom. equipment

5.9

33.1

106.6

175.8

Consumer electronics

11.3

46.8

64.7

70.0

Electronic components

6.6

25.5

74.1

130.4

Hong Kong (China)

ICT products

50.3

111.9

177.0

222.3

Comp. and perif. devices

14.7

34.5

35.4

42.8

Telekom. equipment

5.4

7.8

37.7

64.9

Consumer electronics

10.5

21.7

16.9

12.1

Electronic components

15.8

34.4

72.2

87.3

Taiwan (Province of the People's Republic of China)

ICT products

62.9

62.1

94.7

105.6

Comp. and perif. devices

28.9

14.4

10.8

9.3

Telekom. equipment

3.2

5.3

10.0

10.4

Consumer electronics

2.1

3.4

2.6

3.5

Electronic components

26.2

33.6

66.2

76.7

Rep. Korea

ICT products

59.4

85.3

99.8

107.1

Comp. and perif. devices

19.6

17.7

13.9

10.3

Telekom. equipment

6.6

20.5

25.9

25.7

Consumer electronics

5.7

6.4

4.1

4.4

Electronic components

25.5

29.1

46.1

58.0

Malaysia

ICT products

51.7

61.4

67.6

64.4

Comp. and perif. devices

21.0

23.1

22.8

15.3

Telekom. equipment

3.0

4.6

2.4

3.9

Consumer electronics

8.0

7.0

8.9

6.9

Electronic components

18.5

25.0

31.4

37.0

Singapore

ICT products

75.8

104.4

120.8

122.8

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Table 2 (end)

Products

2000

2005

2010

2013

Regions

Comp. and perif. devices

30.5

31.9

22.0

18.0

Telekom. equipment

2.8

8.8

6.5

8.9

Consumer electronics

3.7

3.9

3.7

2.7

Electronic components

35.3

55.2

87.0

91.2

Philippines

ICT products

14.8

19.7

13.8

17.1

Comp. and perif. devices

7.2

7.7

5.5

4.2

Telekom. equipment

0.6

0.3

0.5

0.4

Consumer electronics

0.3

0.2

0.2

0.3

Electronic components

6.3

11.0

7.1

11.9

Thailand

ICT products

19.7

25.8

37.0

35.6

Comp. and perif. devices

9.1

11.9

18.1

17.4

Telekom. equipment

0.7

0.9

1.8

2.3

Consumer electronics

2.5

3.8

4.8

5.5

Electronic components

7.1

8.3

10.3

9.1

Indonesia

ICT products

7.6

6.9

7.9

6.6

Comp. and perif. devices

3.1

2.5

2.2

1.8

Telekom. equipment

0.3

0.4

0.2

0.2

Consumer electronics

2,8

2,3

4,1

3,1

Electronic components

0.9

1.4

1.1

1.0

Vietnam

ICT products

0.8

0.9

5.7

32.4

Comp. and perif. devices

0.5

0.5

2.0

6.1

Telekom. equipment

0.02

0.04

2.0

21.9

Consumer electronics

0.1

0.2

0.8

1.6

Electronic components

0.2

0.2

0.7

2.7

Составлено по: [http://unctadstat.unctad.org/wds/TableViewer/tableView.aspx=15850].

* ICT products also include the Other category, which is not shown in this table.

Asian countries that have cheaper labor. In 2013, components accounted for 72.6% of ICT exports from Taiwan, 74.3% from Singapore, 54.2% from the Republic of Korea, and 57.5% from Malaysia. China was the largest exporter of electronic components, but its exports of ICT goods accounted for only 21.5%.

In total, the share of electronic components in global exports of ICT goods in 2000-2013 was stable at about 1/3: 32.2% in 2000 and 34.2% in 2013. Such a high share of semi-finished products in world trade indicates the deepening of the international division of labor, which becomes part-time, step-by-step and very often is intra-company, when semi-finished products are moved from one branch of TNCs to their branches in other countries for subsequent assembly.

In world exports of electronic components in 2000-2013, the share of developed countries decreased from 54.4% to 22.1%, and the share of developing countries increased from 46.6% to 77.1%, respectively (the share of transition countries in these exports was at the level of statistical error of less than 1%). (calculated from Table ). Today, the international division of labor exists not only between developed and developing countries. Specialization and cooperation are also developed between Asian countries. Some countries supply electronic components (semi-finished products), while others assemble and export finished products. Developing countries

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East and South-East Asia have taken a very important place in the production of ICT goods, and in the MRT in this industry they play the role of a global factory, even if the developed countries retain a monopoly on the development of the latest technologies.

Among the developing countries of Asia, the big six exporters of ICT goods stand out: China, Hong Kong (PRC), the Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia. In 2000-2013, the share of these six in global exports of ICT goods increased from 34.4% to 64.0%; while the share of China increased from 4.4% to 31.5%, Hong Kong (PRC) - From 5.0% to 11.6%, the shares of Singapore, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan slightly decreased: from 7.6% to 6.4%, from 5.9% to 5.6%, and from 6.3% to 5.5%, respectively. In 2000, the United States, Japan, and Singapore were the world's leading exporters of ICT goods, while China ranked only tenth. In 2013, China became the leader, with Hong Kong (PRC) taking the second place, Singapore was the fourth, South Korea was the fifth, Taiwan was the sixth, and Malaysia was the seventh (3.4%). The former leaders-the United States (7.3% of exports) and Japan (3.2%) - moved to third and ninth place, respectively. Germany was eighth, and Mexico was tenth.

Major exporters of ICT products are Asian countries that are not included in the top six: Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. In 2005-2013, the export of ICT goods from Vietnam increased at a particularly high rate, increasing from $ 0.9 billion to $ 32.4 billion, and the export of telecommunications equipment from $ 0.04 billion to $ 21.4 billion (calculated from Table 2, Appendix to Table 2) .

Asian countries have also begun to play an important role in the export of IT services.

While China, Hong Kong (PRC), Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia specialize in MRI primarily as producers of ICT goods, India has found a different niche in the global system. It has become the world's leading exporter of computer and business process outsourcing services (BPO). Already in 2000. India was the fifth largest exporter of computer and information services after the United States, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Israel. Since the mid-2000s. India, along with Ireland, is one of the two world leaders in the export of computer and information services (in 2010-2012, India was the first, in 2013 it was slightly ahead of Ireland), both countries have a very significant gap from exporting countries, which occupy third or fourth places.

In 2013, developing countries accounted for 29.1% of exports of computer and information services, developing countries in Asia-26.7%, Africa-0.5%, in 2000, the share of all developing countries was only 12.7%. In 2000-2013, India's share in world exports of computer and information services increased from 9.0% to 17.3%. The number of major IT service exporters in 2013 also included China (sixth place, 5.4%). The Philippines ranked 18th (1%) in 2013, and Malaysia ranked 23rd (0.7% of world exports) (calculated from Table ). In general, the volume of production of computer services in China is significantly higher than in India, but most of them are used in the domestic market, software products are "embedded" in computer and telecommunications equipment manufactured in China. The largest IT service providers in China are hardware manufacturers, such as Huawei. In the development of information and computer services, some countries choose an export-oriented strategy: India, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. Other countries - China and the Republic of Korea-are developing this industry mainly to serve the domestic market [Information Economy Report, 2012, p. 52-53].

Bangalore (Bengaluru), which is called India's Silicon Valley, has become the largest cluster of IT companies, higher technical educational institutions that train IT personnel and conduct scientific research. By the 2010s. it has been transformed from a center for providing the simplest computer services, such as coding, software testing (software), to a center that provides complex high-tech services, such as software development embedded in equipment, automation development, CAD (automation system-

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Table 3

Services, Information and Computer Exports (USD )

Countries

2000

2006

2010

2013

Regions

All countries of the world

45.7

128.5

218.0

286.8

Developed countries

39.7

95.5

150.6

197.8

Transition countries

0.2

1.1

2.4

5.5

Developing countries

5.8

29.2

62.0

83.6

South Asia

4.1

21.6

39.6

50.7

Developing countries in East Asia

0.5

3.8

10.6

18.3

Southeast Asia

0.6

1.7

5.5

7.5

Western Asia

0.01

0.06

0.12

0.09

Africa

0.12

0.43

0.99

1.3

Countries

India

4.1

21.4

40.2

49.5

Irish

5.5

23.0

36.9

51.4

Germany

3.8

10.0

17.1

22.3

USA

6.9

10.1

14.1

18.2

Great Britain

4.3

12.4

13.5

16.4

China

0.36

3.0

9.3

15.4

Israel

4.2

5.3

7.8

...

Singapore

0.25

0.6

1.8

...

Philippines

0.08

0.1

1.9

2.8

Malaysia

0.08

0.6

1.45

2.0

Russia

0.06

0.6

1.36

2.6

Japan

1.6

1.0

1.05

1.8

Hong Kong (China)

0.06

0.36

0.89

...

Republic of Korea

0.01

0.25

0.23

0.93

Morocco

...

...

0.30

...

SOUTH AFRICA

0.5

0.2

0.29

0.26

Sri Lanka

0.07

0.1

0.27

0.6

Taiwan

0.12

0.19

0.22

0.89

Pakistan

0.022

0.09

0.19

0.3

Egypt

0.02

0.05

0.15

...

Indonesia

-

0.12

0.11

0.2

Thailand

-

0.01

0.02

0.04

Mauritius

0.003

0.02

0.03

0.1

Tunisia

0.02

0.02

0.04

...

Uganda

0

0.02

0.04

0.08

Bangladesh

0.003

0.03

0.04

...

Compiled from: [Services (BPM5): Exports and imports by service-category].

design process). The city is also home to subsidiaries of TNCs ("captives") that provide services for their corporations or third parties, as well as Indian firms that work on orders from users from developed countries. The term "to be bangalore" has emerged, meaning (for an IT professional in the US) that they have become unemployed and their workplace has "moved" to Bangalore, India, or any other place in the world.

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another place with cheap labor. But today there are other threats. One of the articles on the website of Forbes magazine is called" They are ready to take your high-paying job away from you", and it is already about robots [They Are Ready..., 2015].

AT Kearney, an international consulting company, compiles ratings of countries by their attractiveness for outsourcing IT services and BPO at intervals of two to three years. The set of countries and their roles in the value chain are constantly changing. AT Kearney experts in 2014 identified three stages in the development of IT services and BPO. The first stage is offshoring, since the early 2000s; the second, outsourcing, since the mid-2000s. The third stage, since the mid-2010s, is automation and robotization [AT Kearney, 2014, p. 1]. The 2014 AT Kearney report itself is quite eloquently titled: "Outsourcing of global services. Rich choice: to any place on Earth or to nowhere?".

The first stage, offshoring, the creation of IT - BPO branches in countries with cheap labor to serve their companies, began rather in the 1990s. This was the Indian branch of the American General Electric (now called Genpact). A distinctive feature of the second period, since the mid-2000s, AT Kearney experts call outsourcing; customers transfer contracts for the provision of IT services and BPO to third parties, which can be national companies-large, medium, small. But IT services and BPO are often exported by branches of Western TNCs: some of them were specifically created to serve customers abroad (IBM India), while others were retrained, moving from serving their own company to providing services to external customers (Genpact). Thus, WNS was initially established as the Indian branch of British Airways, and since 2002, this branch has been providing BPO services to other TNCs [http://www.wns.com/About-Us].

At the second stage, since the mid-2000s, outsourcing of IT services and BPO has spread widely, and an increasing number of countries began to provide services. Among the 100 cities - leading outsourcing centers included in the rating of the Indian consulting company Tholons in 2014, there are 39 Asian cities (13 Indian, 8 Chinese, 7 Philippine, 2 Vietnamese, 2 Malaysian cities, as well as Colombo, Singapore, Jakarta, Taipei, Bangkok, Seoul), 9 African cities (Johannesburg, Accra, Cape Town, Casablanca, Cairo, Alexandria, Mauritius (Port Louis), Nairobi, Durban) [Tholons. 2014].

In 2014, AT Kearney ranked 51 countries attractive for outsourcing IT services and BPO, including 13 Asian countries (India (first place), China (second place), Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Singapore) and 7 African countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Ghana, Morocco, Mauritius, Senegal, South Africa) [AT Kearney, 2014, p. 3].

The export of computer services from African countries is still small (see Table 3), but they are actively involved in the competition for hosting IT services and BPO. In Senegal, in 2009, 5 potential areas of employment for young people in the organized sector were identified: the first was construction, and the second was vocational training. In Ghana, BPO was also ranked second among promising areas of employment for young people [The Youth Employment Network, 2009, p. 7-8, 12-13]. Rwanda relies on the development of IT services. Egypt has become an important center for outsourcing IT and BPO services [AT Kearney, 2014, p. 7].

The improvement of IT and cheaper computer equipment, the greater availability of the Internet made it possible to widely distribute not just outsourcing, but freelancing in the field of IT services. In 2011, there were 10,000 freelance programmers in Bangladesh, whose total annual income was estimated at $ 15 million, which equated to about 1/4 of the country's information services exports [Information Economy Report 2012, p. 33].

However, today there are achievements of some countries (India, Philippines, Egypt) and the hopes of other countries (Tropical Africa, Bangladesh) that outsourcing of IT services and BPO will be an important source of export earnings have faced new challenges.

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calls. The export - oriented model of countries that are leading exporters of ICT goods, such as China, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, is also under threat. Will robots and automatons replace the labor force of Asian and African countries in the labor market?

ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION - A NEW CHALLENGE FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Robots have been used in the manufacturing industry for quite a long time, for example, the Unimate robot at General Motors has been used for 50 years. Robotics is widely used for military purposes and in space exploration. Automated rovers survey Mars. Robotics is used for unloading cargo and transferring crews to the International Space Station. The military is considering the use of lethal combat robots (capable of killing people, which, by the way, contradicts the Laws of Isaac Asimov's robots). Drones and unmanned aerial vehicles are also widely used by the military. In space, robots can act as trailblazers, creating conditions for the arrival of humans. They can operate the equipment and maintain the station in working order during the period from the departure of one crew to the arrival of another. The six-wheeled space automated land rover-rover can climb ledges higher than its wheels, overcome obstacles, and transport cargo exceeding its own weight. Whatever happens, the vehicle will be able to take the astronauts back to their spacecraft's landing pad. Robonaut-2, a humanoid robot that can work alongside humans on the space station, has also been created. To stop it, an astronaut just needs to touch it with his hand [NASA: Robots Are Our Friends, 2014]. Military and space robotics are developing faster thanks to funding.

However, in 2013-2014 there was a certain leap, the transition of quantitative changes to a new quality. New-generation robots are used in the manufacturing, mining, and service industries. Intelligent robots perform the work of analysts, and exchange robots have appeared. Amazon is going to use drones to deliver its products. Google is testing a driverless car and buying up robotics companies.

The so called Internet of Things is closely intertwined with robotics: Today, there are 10 billion connected devices in the world, and by 2020 there will be 50 billion of them. A new generation of robots uses wireless networks, big data analytics, machine learning, open access software, and The Internet of Things (The Internet of Robotic Things, 2015).

Examples of the use of connected robotics devices in everyday life are the smart home and the Rumba robot vacuum cleaner, currently the best-selling robot (its sales reached 10 million units in 2014, and these vacuum cleaners account for 18% of global spending on buying vacuum cleaners). In a smart home, devices connected to the Internet "will be aware of where family members are, what they are doing, and can instruct the Rumba robot to leave the room where the party is taking place, order another robot to bring home slippers." Colin Engle, president and co-founder of the American company iRobot, one of the world's largest companies in the field of robotics, which produces robots for military purposes, but is best known for its Rumba vacuum cleaner, in an interview with Comyutervorld magazine, said that he was disappointed with the results of the development of robotics: "So far in 2014, there are no robots that can it would be impossible to distinguish between humans and companion robots, similar to the robots from the popular movies "Star Wars", "Battlefield Galaxy" and "Jetsons", on which entire generations grew up." Engle believes that the main problem is that robotics receives insufficient funding (with the exception of military technologies). Another problem: inventors focus their attention on spectacular technologies, instead of engaging in robotics that would be used in everyday life [iRobot CEO Decries..., 2014].

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There are many anthropomorphic robots. Instead of using humanoid robots like the "butler robot", complex robotic and automated systems are more often used, such as an automated warship or a device that allows a car to avoid crashing into a car driving in front of it. Much attention is paid to the creation of robot assistants, companions, orderlies and medical staff by the Japanese, for whom the aging population, along with a conscious refusal to attract a large number of immigrants, makes this task very relevant. They have developed "robot bear" (medic)," robot dog " (companion), and "Fujitsu" sound systems that can monitor the situation in the home of a lonely elderly person. Hitachi recently announced improvements to its Emiew-2 humanoid robot, which is 80 cm tall and weighs 14 kg; this assistant and guide for the office, which is able to respond to jokes, can move at a speed of 6 km per hour. It is believed that he can serve as a guide in museums [Where's My Robot Butler?..., 2014]. However, in museums using headphones and a tape recorder (yet?) they do without robots.

NAO, a 58 cm tall humanoid robot manufactured by the French firm Aldebaran Robotics, has high-tech sensors, can speak 19 languages, sing and dance. It is used to teach autistic children communication skills. NAO has a relatively small price - 10 thousand dollars. Developed at Stanford University, the PR-2 robot with two "hands", which moves on wheels, can use remote control to sort out scattered things, fold laundry after drying, or bring beer from the refrigerator. However, its price is 280 thousand dollars, which is much more than you can spend on an android housekeeper. A remote-controlled robot will save people from the need for tedious business trips: instead of a manager, it can visit a factory in China and monitor the production process. Another option: a remote-controlled robot cleans the house, and a person directs it from the company's office or even from another country. A truly useful device is a robot that works together with people, a cane that" can see " for people with low vision, developed at the University of Arkansas. The walking stick is equipped with a gyroscope, 3D and a webcam and recognizes doors, stairs and other obstacles, which gives voice or other signals [Where's My Robot Butler?..., 2014].

According to forecasts of the development of artificial intelligence and robotics by the Internet project of The Pew Research Center, by 2025 robots will become a part of our daily life - from manufacturing industries to the most common household activities [The Internet of Robotic Things, 2015]. But will they work in an African village (and not just an African village) where there is no electricity? Even in an oil-producing country like the Republic of the Congo, with a relatively high GNI per capita, 37% of the population had access to electricity in 2010 [http://www.eia.gov/countries].

IT COMPANIES ' RESPONSES TO THE CHALLENGES OF ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION

Even today, in the electronics industry, in the production of ICT goods, the competition between cheap labor and robotics is most clearly manifested. Modern cell phones and iPads can be produced both by automatic machines (at the Finnish company Nokia), and by hundreds of thousands of people-by Foxconn [Akimov, 2015]. By the way, the Taiwanese company Foxconn (aka Hong Hai), which builds iPads and iPhones (it employed 1.29 million people in 2012, including 800 thousand outside of Taiwan), according to its president Terry Guo, who founded this company in the 1970s with modest savings. his mother - 7.5 thousand dollars borrowed from her, intends to widely use robots in its factories in China. This statement was made after a wave of protests by workers at Hong Hai factories in China against low wages, poor working conditions, fines and poor living conditions in dormitories. Already in

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In 2013, 10 thousand robots were used at Foxconn factories in China. The company said that it is going to replace 500 thousand workers with robots in the next 5 years. In Taiwan's Taijung Industrial Park, Foxconn has set up a research and development center and a robotics manufacturing factory. The company plans to invest in the production of 1 million robots. "Workers whose jobs will be taken by robots will be able to do jobs that require higher qualifications" [http://www.everything-robotic.com; http://knowledge.ckgsb.edu.cn].

Robotics is also actively entering the service sector. Robots are replacing "white-collar workers" in the field of IT services and BPO. Even today, outsourcing providers offer a combination of offshoring, reschoring, and the use of robots in their new contracts. The 2014 AT Kearney report states that "not only do robots cost less than humans (which is highly ), they make fewer mistakes, can work around the clock, and the only housing they need is space for the company's servers" [AT Kearney, 2014, p. 9].

As a matter of fact, some IT solutions and systems that have been offered as IT services since the 1990s mean automation: for example, ERP (Enterprise resource planning) - enterprise resource planning, inventory and procurement optimization, accounting, etc.; CRM (Client relationship management) - customer relationship management. HRM (Human resources management) - automation of work with personnel. They have allowed many companies to reduce the number of administrative staff. Now these systems are being improved on the basis of cloud technologies [http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-growing-digital].

Today's shift to automation has profound implications for client companies, outsourcing providers, and the countries that specialize in it. For companies, automation means the third wave of cost reduction after the first - offshoring - and the second - outsourcing. Countries operating in the low-value-added IT services niche may have fewer opportunities to receive orders: routine operations are at risk. Countries that, like India, have moved to higher-value-added jobs have better prospects, but in India, thousands of people in offshore centers do routine work. New countries that are only part of the IT services industry have less adaptability. Simultaneously with the automation of labor-intensive operations, new employment opportunities are emerging. Programming and controlling robots requires qualified specialists. There will be fewer of these jobs, but they will be better paid. However, this is little consolation for those who will lose their jobs. One cannot disagree with the main conclusion of the AT Kearney 2014 report: "Challenges are increasing!" [AT Kearney, 2014, p.11].

Companies, governments, and individuals are forced to find answers to the challenges of automation and robotization, and these three types of economic agents may not have the same answers. The best way to deal with a wave coming at you is to jump into it and float to the surface. China, despite the presence of a huge pool of labor, pays great attention to the development of robotics and automated systems in the future of increasing the share of the elderly population.

Western IT service companies are quick to respond to new robotics challenges. The American company Sutherland Global Services, specializing in BPO, has established branches in countries with low labor costs: India, China, Egypt, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Mexico, and the Philippines. Its 9 branches in India had 12,000 employees in 2014. Employees of Indian branches were offered an impressive social package, which included such programs as H20 (Health and Happiness Online, medical services), VFM (Value for Money, discounts and special offers in hypermarkets, restaurants). In 8 branches of the company in the Philippines, there were 15 thousand employees. The company received the "Best employer of the year" award there. Sa Branch-

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zerland " in Suzhou Industrial Park, China, was opened in 2013. However, will these enterprises continue to operate and, if so, to what extent?

In 2014, Sutherland announced that it would pay special attention to Back Office Robotic Process Automation (RPA). 50-70% of the work that is outsourced to countries such as India and the Philippines can be automated, and the remaining operations will take a higher place in the global market. value chains, and they will be implemented in developed countries. Robotization and automation will reduce labor costs (from 40 to 70%), reduce the percentage of errors to zero, and improve the quality of services [http://www.sutherlandglobal.com/Services-RPA].

Indian IT service companies are also forced to adapt to new trends. The Indian company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the leader of the IT services industry in India (320 thousand employees in 2014/15 FY), announced the automation of IT services and BPO.TCS has developed its model of Robotic Process Automation (RPA, robotization and automation of business processes). "50 intelligent and self-learning artificial intelligences" and an active robot arm provide the system with features such as optical and intelligent character recognition. The system includes document and image analyzers, macros, and scripts, while recording and reproducing devices perform repetitive actions. Time spent is reduced by 90%, costs-by 30%. One hundred percent accuracy is provided due to the fact that there is no fatigue factor. Robots can work around the clock, perform various tasks at high speed, and are capable of self-learning (interview with Ravi Ketana, Head of Innovation and Technology at TCS, BPS [http://tcstranspire.com/en_get_transpired]). President of TCS H. Chandrasekaran noted that the company is rethinking its strategy, which will be driven by five digital technologies: big data and analytics, cloud technologies, mobile and ubiquitous computing, social networks; robotics and artificial intelligence [Enterprises must ..., 2015].

In parallel with these spirit-of-the-times innovations, TCS has begun to reduce the number of staff involved in routine operations. At the end of 2014, about 1 thousand mid-level managers were laid off. This decision caused an explosion on social networks and a protest from trade unions. Mid-level managers distributed engineers to various projects, monitored the quality of software, and trained the specialists they recruited. When these functions are automated, many of them become unnecessary. Along with the reductions, TCS hired 1.5 thousand employees in the first three quarters of 2014/2015. experienced specialists in big data analytics, visualization design, user experience analysis, and the Internet of Things. The company plans to increase investment in automation, and work related to remote monitoring, software testing, and quality control will be automated [http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/automation ..., TCS job cuts spur legal threats, 5 Jan. 2015; TCS eyes $5 billion, 28 Jan. 2015].

India's fourth-largest IT services company, HCL Technologies, is also planning to restructure its staff. "The company is going to change the structure of its employment in the next one or two years, moving from a pyramid model in which a large number of engineers are engaged in software testing and technical IT support, to the development of automation, artificial intelligence, and expanding the hiring of highly qualified specialists. The pyramid will become flat." Work at the lowest level of the pyramid will be automated [HCL Technologies to replace employees. 23 Jan. 2015].

Two of India's top four IT companies, TCS and Infosys, which together have more than 460,000 employees, have said they will not be involved in the project.

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reduce the number of employees due to automation and the use of artificial intelligence. The other two companies, Wipro and HCL, which employ more than 250,000 people, have announced that they will make structural changes in employment and technology (in other words, reduce staff). Wipro plans to reduce the number of employees from 150 thousand to 100 thousand within three years, without resorting to mass layoffs [HCL Technologies to replace employees, 23 Jan. 2015]. But is it possible to reduce staff by 1/3 without layoffs?

The number of employees employed in the branches of Western TNCs in the IT services sector has noticeably decreased. IBM India reduced its headcount from 165,000 in 2011 to 113,000 in October 2014 and plans to reduce it to 100,000 people. Analysts say that "the impact of automation and artificial intelligence will be breakthrough" [http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/automation]. Both in the positive and negative senses of the word. The transition from full-time employment to part-time, virtual employment is also predicted. The introduction of automation and the replacement of workers with robots or automated programs is called a "win-win for customers and the BPO industry", but this is not a win-win for those employed in the industry.

Against the background of new challenges of automation and robotization in FY 2014/2015, the turnover growth of the leading four Indian IT companies, which accounted for 1/4 of the total number of employees in IT services, slowed down. And there were periods when their growth rates, like the growth rate of the entire industry, were measured in double digits. The top four companies had low performance indicators in comparison with Western companies. Turnover per employee was $ 12,200 for TCS, $ 11,212 for Wipro, $ 12,254 for Infosys, and $ 14,311 for HCL, which is significantly lower than the Indian branch of the Irish IT services company Accenture ($50,000) [Indian IT in FY15... , 27 Apr. 2015].

For two decades now, the IT industry, which generated sales of $ 146 billion in fy14/2015 and employs about 3 million people, has been a driver of job creation in the organized sector. Now the growth rate of job creation in large companies is slowing down. For the Indian IT services industry, this fiscal year was one of the most difficult in the last 10 years [Indian IT in FY15..., 27 Apr. 2015]. It is obvious that staff reduction and restructuring are ahead.

Companies are forced to switch to automation in order to compete with competitors-both Western TNCs and Indian start-ups. The result of such measures may be an aggravation of the employment problem. In a vulnerable position are IT service workers who recently occupied the position of a kind of" working aristocracy", belonging to the new middle class. They must not only raise their qualifications, but also change them in order to find a niche in the new system. Many people will have to leave the positions of full-time employees and accept part-time, virtual employment, or engage in freelancing, "in which geography does not matter at all, and the customer's fixed costs - for equipment, electricity, and communications-are zero" [AT Kearney, 2014, p. 10], but the freelancer himself bears these costs. At the same time, the spread of robotics and automation reduces the demand for immigrant labor in developed countries [Akimov, 2015] (except for professionals of the highest level). However, Ulrich Beck, describing globalization as a society of risks, wrote that in the context of globalization, the situation of employees is very unstable, they need to be prepared for changes, and unfavorable ones at that [Beck, 2000]. The active replacement of labor by capital through the use of ICTs and robots contributes significantly to the deepening of income and wealth inequality [Melyantsev, 2015].

In many ways, one can clearly see the changing position of developing Asian countries in MRI over the past decades. However, if the production of electronic components and assembly of finished products will be carried out by robots, if the bu-

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If the enterprise's IT services and business processes are automated, what will be the fate of countries with cheap and skilled labor-export platforms - and especially those workers who are employed in these industries? In the new world of intelligent robots and self-driving machines, humans can become unnecessary and redundant, especially in countries where there is already a huge reservoir of surplus labor that settles in agriculture, in the informal sector of the city. It is also not needed in developed countries, where this unoccupied population could emigrate.

It can be argued that new labor-saving technologies, the introduction of which may threaten the country's position on the world market, its national competitiveness and the interests of a fairly broad mass of the population, are among the cross-border challenges that the national state should find adequate answers to [Panarin, 2015, p.18]. Asian countries are looking for these answers. China itself is at the forefront of robotics and automation. In India, it is proposed to create 1 million jobs in the field of IT services not just in second-and third-tier cities, but in small towns and rural areas [Indian IT in FY15..., 27 Apr. 2015].

The impact of the breakthrough development of robotics on the IT sector is ambiguous. Robotization and automation are impossible without the use of information technologies. Robotics is also developed by IT companies, such as the Chinese Baidu or the American Google. However, in my opinion, there will not be a complete rejection of the bet on cheap labor. Both trends will act in different directions and simultaneously. The result is the vector obtained by adding these forces. The outlook is as follows: robotics - in some industries and segments, the use of cheap labor - in others, including those focused on the growing and extremely capacious domestic market of Asian countries. It can be assumed that just as outsourcing co-exists with offshoring without completely replacing it, robotization and automation will co-exist with the already established IT and BPO services sector in Asia and Africa, although changes in it are inevitable.

If automation and robotization become ubiquitous, it will lead to a contraction in the outsourcing of IT services and BPO in countries with cheap labor, and in general to drastic shifts in the existing MRI system, to the closure of enterprises, and job cuts in Afro-Asian countries. Several "answers" to these new challenges are planned. First, it is possible to move labor-intensive industries and labor-intensive services to countries with even cheaper labor - in Asia to Vietnam, then to Cambodia and Laos. Secondly, Asian countries themselves, especially China, which will face an aging population in the future, are developing and actively implementing robotics and automation, including in the electronics industry. Companies in the IT services sector (for example, Indian ones) are trying to find answers to this challenge and are actively implementing automation and robotization. Third, IT is possible to reorient industry and IT services to the regional market. In the production of ICT goods, there is already a division of labor between Asian countries themselves: some (Taiwan, the Republic of Korea) act as suppliers of electronic components, while others (China, Vietnam) assemble finished products from imported components and then export them, including to the countries of their region. Fourth, the production of ICT goods and IT services may also be partially reoriented to the domestic market. In fact, it is precisely in line with the focus on production for the domestic market, on the development of industrial production in the country, without regard to comparative advantages, that the initiative of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi "Do in India"can be considered. Import substitution and focus on the domestic market are becoming relevant not only for Russia, which has fallen under Western sanctions.

It is not companies that are most vulnerable, but people involved in the production of ICT goods and services in Asian countries. Transition to automation and

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robotization is fraught with an increase in unemployment. The robots are coming! It is obvious that, as in the well-known "magic quadrilateral" of combining public policy goals, states need to choose a point where the country simultaneously develops advanced technologies and at the same time does not allow the problem of employment to worsen.

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