Artificial intelligence and automation do not present a huge threat to business process outsourcing (BPO) outsourcing jobs, as massive displacement in industries expected to adapt to the innovation is not yet seen.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), through its Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) Director Dominique R. Tutay, said that “companies are required anything related to displacement. This gives us a signal [on any labor market movement],” citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Fifty-six percent of workers from the Philippines, along with Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam will likely lose their jobs due to automation over the next two decades, the UK-based global risk and strategic consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft stated.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) also made a similar projection revealing that 89 percent of the million workers in the country engaged in simple voice-based BPO industry is likely to be replaced by AI.
To prepare Filipino workers from the projected threat of AI, Tutay mentioned that the government is now preparing contingency measures to address the said issue. — via BusinessMirror
The Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-Quality Opportunities (Trabaho) bill will not favor the foreign investments in economic zones across the country, according to the Philippine Ecozones Association (Philea), as the bill is said to cut fiscal incentives granted to ecozone locators while reducing corporate income tax.
The bill will cause setbacks that will offset the gains in ecozones because “the tax reform measures being put forth will reverse the progress that the private sector, hand in hand with the government, have attained thus far in contributing to nation-building through strengthening of the industrial sectors of manufacturing, information technology, business process outsourcing, and many others,” Philea president Francisco Zaldarriaga said.
The American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham) also expressed their concerns.
“Without PEZA and other special zones preserving their unique reputation as efficient locations for doing business, more investors will no longer make the Philippines their first choice,” AmCham stated.
Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua assured that employment in other industries would experience growth to lower corporate taxes. — via Rappler.com
The Philippine Statistics Authority will delay until 2020 the planned rebasing of national income accounts, including data for measuring gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
“We expect that the rebasing of national accounts will be finished by 2020,” National Statistician Lisa Grace S. Bersales said.
The PSA chief also added that the agency is considering at using 2018 as the new base year for GDP and inflation.
The choice of the new base year will be finalized “within the year”, subject to the approval of the PSA Board — the highest policy-making body of the agency. — via Business World
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