PH urges ADB to help ‘future-proof’ economies vs technological change

FILE: Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III. (KING RODRIGUEZ/ Presidential Photo)

MANILA — Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Saturday urged the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to assist its Asia-Pacific member countries in future proofing their economies against the impacts of rapid advances in digital technologies.

“There is a need to future-proof our economies so that technological change makes them strong rather than undermines them. Smart technologies bring great promise but also some amount of peril,” he said at the opening session of the 51st annual meeting of the ADB Board of Governors held here.

Dominguez pointed out that while technologies could improve productivity significantly, these could also eradicate jobs and introduce greater inequalities.

“The ADB, as the region’s main concourse of development ideas, should help member countries to better harness the forces of technological change. It needs to develop the means to support member countries from falling into the wrong side of the digital divide,” he added.

For his part, ADB President Takehiko Nakao identified advancements in technology as one significant factor that would help drive the region’s future growth.

“New technologies are emerging faster than people can image. New technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and “internet of things” have huge potential to raise productivity and improve our daily lives,” he said in the same event.

The ADB chief also noted the growing concern that the rise of new technologies could cause widespread job losses.

However, Nakao cited result of ADB’s research indicating that new technologies often could automate only some of those tasks, but not the whole job.

“…Higher incomes driven by higher productivity may substantially increase demand for products, more than offsetting job losses caused by new technologies,” he said.

Nakao thus underscored the need for governments to implement proactive and comprehensive actions on skills development, labor regulation, social protection, and income redistribution.

“Governments must promote ICT (information communications technology) infrastructure, protect personal data and privacy, and ensure fair competition,” he said. “Governments can also apply new technologies to improve public service delivery.”

In education, Nakao further said adaptive learning and remote technologies would enhance learning outcomes in schools.

“Telemedicine, AI, and the use of big data will have great potential to improve health services,” he added.