The Ministry of Commerce has conducted a workshop to formulate an action plan to face the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution. Syed Almas Kabir, Managing Director and CEO of Metronet Bangladesh Limited, presented the main article in the meeting chaired by Tapan Kanti Ghosh, Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce.
Senior officials of various ministries and departments including Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry, Department of Post and Telecommunication, ICT Division were present in the meeting. Besides, representatives of FBCCI, BJMEA, BKMEA, BTMA, Leathergoods Association and Tanners Association from the private sector attended.
In the welcome speech, Tapan Kanti Ghosh, Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and automation has the potential for unprecedented changes in industry and technology. Importantly, human jobs will be taken over by advanced machines and robots, causing many people to lose their jobs. Besides, new employment will also be created. He also said that the initiative of this workshop has been taken to formulate an action plan to face the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.
The key-note article presenter FBCCI Director, Bangladesh-Malaysia Chamber President and Metronet Bangladesh Limited Managing Director and CEO Syed Almas Kabir said that due to the impact of the fourth industrial revolution, 60 percent of the garment industry in Bangladesh, 55 percent in the furniture industry, 40 percent in the processed agricultural products industry, 35 percent in the leather and footwear industry. And 20 percent of people in the service industry will be out of work. People with IT and technical knowledge will survive in the changing scenario.
It should be noted that there are only 14 percent of skilled manpower with technical training in our country; but looking at the developed world, the technically skilled population is about 60 percent. So we have to go ahead with a well-planned strategy and at the same time build a technically skilled population in Bangladesh.
He identified the challenges of ensuring data security, technological issues disrupting production, protecting personal privacy, ensuring continued connectivity between the Internet and other technologies, and the loss of many human jobs due to automation. These possibilities are identified as reduction of risk in the workplace due to the impact of automation, increased control in the manufacturing industry, major changes in the health and medical sector, increased demand for specialized professions and overall improvement of quality of life. Bangladesh is already making a lot of progress in the IT sector. Bangladesh is working to adapt to all the modern information technologies of the present world. Bangladesh is preparing to adapt itself to the technology of the future. He urged us to take initiatives to formulate policies related to the fourth industrial revolution as our preparation in Bangladesh.
In the closing speech, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Director General of the WTO Division Md. Hafizur Rahman said, the organization of such workshop is from the plan to become a competitive, innovative and efficient country at the global level by prioritizing research and innovation related to the fourth industrial revolution. He thanked the keynote presenter Syed Almas Kabir for such an interactive presentation.
