The Department of Finance (DOF) said Filipinos need to continuously adapt to technology-driven change in anticipation of new jobs that require up-skilling.
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said that, while new technologies “destroy” certain traditional jobs, such also create new ones under what has been called the fourth
industrial revolution.
He also said workers should prepare for a future of continuous learning to remain relevant and productive in a world of disruptive technologies.
Earlier, Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Takehiko Nakao said people have to be taught how to learn throughout their lives.
“We should embrace innovation. We should look at the bright side, but again provide safety nets for those who cannot catch up all the time,” Dominguez said at the ADB governors’ seminar forming part of the activities of the 51st ADB annual meetings held last week in Mandaluyong City.
According to Dominguez, governments should deal with the impact of technology-driven progress on its labor force by encouraging the private sector, through the grant of incentives, to upgrade the knowledge and skills of workers.
Governments should also ensure that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are able to take advantage of disruptive technologies by providing them with access to new tools, such as faster Internet connectivity, enabling them to transact business online or through cashless systems like the use of QR codes.
“I’m sure the government cannot do it all on its own. We have to govern in a smarter way, we have to anticipate the potential problems, and we have to take necessary action. But again, we also have to encourage the private sector to share the burden here,” he added.
He said when he took over as finance secretary in 2016, he immediately sat down with leaders of the business-process outsourcing (BPO) sector to encourage them to retrain workers because “machine intelligence was just around the corner.”
Since the meeting, Dominguez said the BPO industry, which accounts for some 6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), has accelerated its training to upgrade workers’ skills so that they can move up the job value chain rather than remain stagnant in traditional BPO jobs as call center agents, which could easily be replaced by automation.