ERIA-RIS-OECD Asia Forum: Digitalisation and Development: Reflections from Asia
Digitalization-A New Wave of Technological Change
Technological innovation has been a major force behind economic transformation at different stages of human civilizations. From invention of steam engines to high-speed computers the role and contribution of technologies remained crucial. Historically, countries that have invested in research & development in science, technology and innovation (STI) have maintained an edge over others in advancing application of technologies in manufacturing and augmenting the contribution of frontier areas of technology to the process of economic growth and development. Spread of telecommunications, digital infrastructure and modern information technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Block Chain, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Big Data, etc have significantly reduced human effort in production and contributed to higher productivity of labor. It simultaneously marked a steady acquisition of higher technical and managerial skills by the existing workforce which can be broadly defined as adaptation and investment in formal education and training for acquisition of new skills for fresh supply of talents in line the emerging skill requirements. Following that trend, the world has reached a stage now where human labour is being substituted by robots on the grounds of speed and efficiency.