WEF 2019: Wipro CEO says businesses, govts must invest in reskilling to address job loss worries

Businesses and governments must invest in reskilling the workforce to address anxiety over impending job losses, Wipro CEO Abidali Neemuchwala said Tuesday. Speaking at a session here at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, he said businesses must also improve their ability to assimilate cultures. To this end, Wipro is recruiting locally everywhere in the world, hiring as many people in the US, for instance, as it typically hires in India, he said.

By 2025, the fifth generation (5G) of mobile telephony technology will be rolled out in 110 countries, bringing unprecedented benefits for consumers, businesses and society, Ken Hu, Deputy Chairman and Rotating Chairman of Huawei Technologies, said at the same panel discussion.

In Globalization 4.0, "I believe there will be more focus from business benefit to social value," Hu said, citing the potential of technology to make life better for people living with disability, provide more widespread access to banking services, and grow food for the expanding population.

Nokia Corporation CEO Rajeev Suri said evolving technologies will resolve the productivity paradox.

Citing the example of the US, where the digital economy has enhanced productivity by 2.7 per cent per annum while the physical economy has grown by less than 1 per cent, he surmised that the "tipping point" for the US will be the year 2028.

Four sectors -- health, transport, energy and manufacturing, which are underpinned by digital networks -- will unleash this wave of productivity, he said.

Visa CEO Alfred F Kelly said customer and citizen-centricity is imperative. For the first time in history, the size of the middle class is larger than the number of people in poverty, creating never-before possibilities for financial inclusion, Kelly said. "Financial inclusion comes after financial literacy. For this, education is necessary," he added.

Rebuilding trust has to be a collaborative effort by business and government, the panellists agreed.

A coalition of government and business to develop good privacy and cybersecurity policies that can be applied across countries would be a defining moment, Suri said, adding that it is important to spread awareness of the benefits of Globalization 4.0 and 5G technology.