The employment situation in major sectors of Bangladesh is likely to face a serious setback by 2030 due to automation, according to a new study.
The research by a2i showed that a substantial number of job losses will take place in the readymade garments, agriculture and some other sectors.
The job loss in the RMG sector would be 60 per cent by 2030, which is very alarming for the country, said the study.
The job loss would be 35 per cent in the leather sector, 20 per cent in tourism sector, around 1.4 million workers would lose job in the furniture sector and 0.6 million workers would lose job in the agro-processing sector.
The research findings were revealed at a business luncheon meeting on 4th Industrial Revolution Preparation, organised by Bangladesh-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BMCCI) at a city hotel.
Prime Minister's private industry and investment advisor Salman F. Rahman was present at the meeting as chief guest while BASIS president Syed Almas Kabir made the keynote presentation.
In his presentation, Mr. Almas Kabir said Bangladesh could not tap all the benefits of the second and third industrial revolution, but could moderately overcome the setbacks.
The 4th industrial revolution that is going to happen within next three to five years will affect the country as artificial intelligence or robotics will not only replace manual jobs but also cognitive labour, he said.
"Education needs to keep pace with the changing demand for skills with new technology. So, skills are the most important as it is a magic word."
In future, the developed and developing countries might set up the manufacturing units in their countries to run with the robots as they will not need a lot of workers, he added.
"People with these skill sets will demand higher remuneration while some without having none of these skills will be at a total loss," said Mr Almas Kabir, who is also the vice president of BMCCI.
He said the technologies coming are blockchain, simulation, cloud computing, 3d printing, adapting manufacturing, human machine cooperation, speech processing, censor, big data, virtual and augmented reality.
These are the skills which we need to really have to focus right now. Because 4IR will start impacting within the next three to five years in Bangladesh, he added. "If we do not teach our university students and college students, then they will be in total loss."
He suggested making the education system more technology-oriented so that the human resources can be transformed with the demand of the industries. For instance, if the robotics replaces the workers, then Bangladesh can produce the robots for the developed and developing countries.
Salman F. Rahman said that there are many frightening issues with regard to 4th IR. The most frightening is when machines take over that of human brain. Many moral and ethical issues will arise that need to be addressed, he added.
"We are going to face very challenging time which people are not realising now," he said.
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