The banker urges the government to address the need to prepare Malaysians for the digital economy, when traditional jobs may be taken over by robots.
The education system, according to Munir, is not preparing Malaysians for the rise of the digital economy which could displace traditional jobs.
He worries that artificial intelligence and robots could replace not only unskilled workers but also skilled ones, and that the education system is not preparing young Malaysians for it.
The Edgemarkets.com quoted him as saying that in a digital economy, robots or intelligent computer systems could replace unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled labour.
Urging the government to look at how digitisation could affect the economy and the socio-economic system, Munir said: “If we do not do that, then (we are) sitting on a social economic timebomb that can explode when people are out of work.”
He said this when asked about his Budget 2018 wishlist on the sidelines of the Selangor-International Business Summit 2017 and the Selangor-Association of South East Asian Nations Business Conference yesterday.
“I know Malaysia has plans to (embrace) digital technology. It is new technology that can do an old job. Will workers be upskilled? Do we have the means to train them to upskill and upscale them?
“I worry whether we are prepared for the digital economy. Our education system is not fit for the purpose of a digital economy. We don’t educate the young and adults about the needs of this economy,” he was quoted as saying by Edgemarkets.com.
The Bank Muamalat Bhd chairman, in calling on the government to encourage cognitive learning, said: “The education system takes years to change. There should also be incentives to upscale workers, and for them to learn to use new technology so that they do not become unemployed.”
Last week, he voiced similar sentiments when talking about the digital economy and how it will affect Asean nations.
He had said that the overhaul of education systems would take time. “The least expressed change that must take place, because of political correctness, is the disposition across Asean among the political establishment against argument and questioning. But cognitive skills are the most needed in the digital economy.”
Munir had added in a comment piece in The Star: “The magnitude of the challenge posed to Asean by the digital economy is huge. It is a game changer which present Asean integration planning fails to even begin to address. It is a sweeping revolution which the lackadaisical Asean way of doing things will not be able to contend with.”
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