Beyond talk of hiring more data scientists and cyber-security experts, or automating counter and customer services, most institutions have not fully examined how changes to workflows or business strategies under different digital scenarios will impact existing jobs. It is also not uncommon for institutions to chiefly focus on ITrelated technical skills as a core competence for future workers. Yet we all recognise the speed at which technical knowledge becomes quickly obsolete. In reality, learning agility, creative thinking and behavioural insights may be far more important in future workers. In responding to technological disruptions, the implications for the workforce therefore demand much more rigorous attention than the cursory acknowledgement that it is getting today. We intend to work with financial institutions over the coming months to take this forward, beginning with a holistic assessment to better understand the dynamics of the financial sector workforce as a basis to forecast skill demand and supply under different scenarios. This in turn aims to support the formulation of strategies – both an the institution and industry level – to effectively transition the workforce. For Malaysia, with a significant majority of jobs in the high-skilled category, technology is more likely to augment and redefine job roles in the financial sector, rather than eliminate occupations altogether over the next decade. Nevertheless, some segments will inevitably face the risk of displacement. We aim to work with the industry to establish appropriate mechanisms to re-skill workers and enhance their prospects for gainful employment in different roles.
These concerns are supported by the fact that as a member of the EU’s Economic and Financial Committee, I can watch the integration process every day on-line as an insider, so to say. The title of this conference stresses the fact that European integration started 60 years ago. You know that exactly 60 years ago a completely different project, originally aimed to build up something “brand new”, also appeared quite far away from Europe – in China. What irony of fate that after these sixty years it is now the Chinese who seem to be on their way up, running fast, while the European Union is stagnating or even descending economically. What bitterness, when one realises that on its way up, China is still a desperate and crazy communist regime that has just allowed its citizens a bit more freedom in the area of economic life. Of course, a part of the explanation lies in the fact of simple economic convergence. But without any doubt, the EU is losing its momentum. Not just now, in the crisis; this is a longer process. In the EU it seems to me that we have started concentrating more on conservation or preservation of the existing wealth, rather than on wealth creation. The question of why the European Union is not as economically powerful and efficient as it would like to be, is certainly complex.