DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IMPACT ON LOCAL LABOUR MARKET MINIMAL

April 19, 2024

Economy

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IMPACT ON LOCAL LABOUR MARKET MINIMAL - SURVEY

April 08, 2018

Nearly 85 percent of jobs will be transformed in the next three years and the rest will disappear due to the digital transformation taking place at an exponential pace across the globe, a top official of Microsoft Sri Lanka said.Speaking at the Azure Summit in Colombo last week, he said around 65 percent of Asia Pacific’s GDP will be derived from digital products or services created directly through technology by 2021.

Digital transformation while on the one hand had put workers off employment, it also a job creator in another aspect. A survey by the Digital Association, Bitcom, reveals that digital transformation will not necessarily lead to fewer workers being needed, but rather create jobs through new process and business models.However, the impact of digital transformation on the labour market in Sri Lanka has not been significant due to the slow pace of growth in technology. Unemployment, according to statistics, fell to around four percent in the final quarter last year, the lowest since 2012 which recorded 3.8 percent decline in unemployment.

However, digitisation in Sri Lanka is gaining pace with the shift to online booking of medical specialist, digitalization of medical tests, mobile banking such as eZ cash and plans to launch a trading information platform and a single window on trade.Microsoft Country Manager for Sri Lanka and the Maldives Hasitha Abeywardena said the company has invested US$ 11 million during the past 11 years in developing the eco system in Sri Lanka. Microsoft commenced operations in Sri Lanka in 1997.

With its mission to empower everyone in organizations to achieve more the company has assisted in getting the right technology for students and tools for teachers. Speaking on the use of Cloud technology he said it is a powerful means to transform businesses. to Uber and Hirdaramani in Sri Lanka are examples for companies that have used technology to transform businesses. GM APAC Cloud and Enterprise Microsoft Mike Chan said Azure is a replacement and an enabler to do more having the sky as the limit.

“Transformation in companies took place across engaging customers, empowering employees, transforming products and optimizing operations,” he said.Azure is a comprehensive set of cloud services that developers and IT professionals use to build, deploy and manage applications through global network of datacenters.Microsoft Azure formerly known as Windows Azure is a cloud computing service created by the company to build, test, deploy and manage applications and services through a global network of Microsoft managed data centres. It provides software as a service, platform as a service and infrastructure as a service and supports many different programming languages, tools and frameworks.Azure was launched in 2008 and released in 2010 as ‘Windows Azure’ before being renamed ‘Microsoft Azure’ in 2014.