Philippines may lose 18 million jobs due to "new disruptive technologies" : DTI
The Philippines could lose 18 million jobs due to "new disruptive technologies" if it fails to come up with a good strategy, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said on Wednesday.
In a press briefing in Malacanang, DTI Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba said that separate studies by US-based McKinsey Global and Asian Institute of Management showed the sectors which could suffer job losses in five to six years are agriculture, forestry and fishing, financial insurance, mining and construction.
"Just like what I've said, the technologies arising from the fourth industrial revolution are disruptive. And in fact, there were studies that were conducted - McKinsey said, 48 percent of activities, that's equivalent to 18.2 million jobs - could be automated. And mostly, it's gonna affect agriculture with 6 million jobs being lost due to automation; retail, 3.4 million jobs; in manufacturing, 2.4 million jobs," she said.
"But there is low risk of being automated in the sectors like education, arts, entertainment, human health, public administration, as well as in professional and scientific sector," Aldaba said.
"So, in the face of all this, we really need to rethink what should be our strategy. We're faced with these new disruptive technologies which could lead to job losses if we're not about to properly implement a good strategy and that would also allow us to shift to a new industrial strategy as well as enable us to transition and transform our economic structures such that we will be able to embed these new technologies in our production system," the official added.
She said the Philippines should "embrace industry 4.0" and to upgrade and deepen its global value chain activities to increase exports.
In the area of artificial intelligence, Aldaba said the government is working on a task force, which they hope to be in place by August.
The task force would work on the Philippine roadmap.
"Let us embrace the new technologies because they can help us improve our productivity and our competitiveness; but at the same time we need to re-skill our work force, we need to focus our efforts in terms of improving our education system along with improving our ease of doing business, building those necessary infrastructures that would enable us to improve our competitiveness," she said.
On Wednesday, DTI and the Anti-Red Tape Authority signed the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act No 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018. Celerina Monte/DMS
