Speakers at a webinar on `Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR): Challenges and Opportunities' on Tuesday said there is risk of job loss due to emergence of 4th Industrial Revolution(4IR) but the opportunities including creation of new jobs are enormous.
If these opportunities are effectively utilised, it would increase jobs twofold than the jobs expected to be lost, they told the function.
Organised by Bangladesh e-Government Computer Incident Response Team (BGD e-Gov CIRT) the function was addressed, among others, by Director of National Data Center and Project Director of LICT Project Tarique M Barkatullah.
IT-ITES Policy Adviser of LICT Project Sami Ahmed presented a keynote paper on '4IR: Challenges and Opportunities' depicting the frontier
technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning that would play role to change almost everything around society.
Tarique said the government will hold a series of discussion on the 4IR issues and incorporate the suggestions of stakeholders and experts in making strategy in this regard to face challenges and utilize opportunities of fourth industrial revolution.
In his presentation Sami Ahmed referred to the research conducted by Aspire to Innovate (A2I) Programme of ICT Division that said about 5.5 million job loss and creation of 10 million new jobs due to emergence of 4IR and added that jobs will be created more than prediction of job loss.
"The LICT project has also put forward a set of recommendations to University Grants Commission (UGC) to change academic curriculum to cope up with the 4IR," he added.
The frontier technology based innovations and startups would contribute to create scope of jobs in different areas including health, agriculture, education, finance, he said, adding that the government has been providing funds for innovations and startups to increase investment in the sector and promoting research and development.
Focusing on the government's preparation for future works including establishment of Sheikh Hasina Institute of Frontier Technology (SHIFT), Sheikh Kamal IT Institute and Incubation Center, Center for 4IR, Leadership Academy, Sami Ahmed said all these are being implemented keeping 4IR challenges and opportunities in mind.
"Frontier technology would be one of the biggest catalysts for turning Bangladesh into a developed country by 2041 and the government is working to ensure optimal use of it," he said, adding that nearly three million people are expected to be provided training to build their capacity on 4IR in the next five years, he added.