Future of Work Discussed at the Governors' Seminar of the 51st ADB Annual Meeting

Transcript

51st ADB Annual Meeting, Manila, Philippines - ADB Director of Development Economics and Indicators Division Rana Hasan summarizes the debate that took place at the Governors' Seminar on 4 May 2018.

"Point no, 1, technology has been good for Asia and will continue to be good. In fact, a very nice point was made by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez who noted that when the ADB started, you had much more poverty, you had much more issues with health, you had populations which didn’t have much literacy. And when you look at the region today, you really see a transformed region and a lot of that is due to technology," he says.

"A second point that was made is that yes, there are some downsides to technology. Each of our panelists made that point. But it’s up to governments, it’s up to the private sector, it’s up to civil society to make sure that those challenges of technology are tackled.

"The panelists also talked about how these things can be done: better education, emphasizing adult learning, continuous learning, learning about digital technologies. But also, the human side of things. How to work in teams, how to nurture one another. Those are things machines are never going to do," Hasan continues.

"On social protection, it’s accepted that there are going to be displacements, people are going to lose jobs. Industries will come down. And it’s up to governments to really put together better social protection. And finally, I think the interesting point that was made is that technology can actually be used in delivering better social protection, better education. So, technology creates problems, but it’s also presenting solutions."