MANILA -- Strengthening the education system will help enhance the competitiveness of countries in Asia in the field of information and communications technology (ICT).
Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said that education will play a critical role in helping people adapt with various technological changes happening today.
“Some jobs are going to be destroyed, some jobs are to be created. We must make sure that the education of our people teaches them how to learn throughout their lives. There is going to be a lot of changes so people will need to be adapted,” Dominguez said during a seminar of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Board of Governors on Technological Change, Globalization and Jobs in Asia held Friday.
The secretary, who chairs the Board of Governors and is Governor for the Philippines, likewise stressed that incentives must be provided to the private sector to offer training programs that will upgrade the knowledge and skills of workers.
“Having a smartphone is empowering for SMEs (small and medium enterprises). If you can have a system where they can pay through QR codes, that will be helpful in improving their livelihoods and incomes,” said Dominguez. “Government must make sure that the frequencies for the Internet are available to the service providers. We must also encourage the private sector to share the burden here,” he added.
Training of teachers is also important in improving the educational system in the region according to Dominguez.
The Philippines has been building more climate-resilient classrooms while the private sector is helping the schools by providing Internet facilities.
“We have to inculcate the love for learning from the first grade,” Dominguez said.
For his part, ADB President Takehiko Nakao said income redistribution and implementing a progressive taxation system are some of the measures that will ensure inclusive economic growth in Asia. “Economic growth in Asia will depend significantly on domestic demand,” said Nakao.
The ADB, in its Asian Development Outlook 2018 report, projects the Philippines to have a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 6.8 percent for this year and 6.9 percent next year, driven by strong domestic demand and heavy spending on various infrastructure projects under the national government’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ program.
Asia is forecasted to have an economic growth of 6 percent in 2018 and 5.9 percent in 2019 as external demand remains strong. The ADB said that new technologies will propel higher economic growth and productivity across the region.
“While new technologies displace jobs, they also unleash countervailing forces that generate more jobs. As some workers may be left behind, governments in developing Asia should respond to this challenge by ensuring that workers are protected from the downside of new technologies and prepared to harness the new opportunities they provide. This will require coordinated action on skills development, labor regulation, social protection, and income redistribution,” the ADB stated in its report.
The seminar, which is part of the 51st ADB Annual Meeting, focused on policy responses that are needed for harnessing new technologies to ensure prosperity amid shifting patterns in the globalized economy.
These policies include skills development; tax and subsidy programs that influence firms’ investment and employment decisions; and the design of social protection systems. (PNA)
