Developing economies should create more high-level jobs in gig economy — MTDC

Developing economies should create more high-level jobs in gig economy — MTDC

27 Jan 2021

The governments of developing countries, including Malaysia, should put in place plans to create more high-level jobs like data scientist amid the growth of the gig economy.

Malaysia Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) chief executive officer Datuk Norhalim Yunus said instead of being trapped in low-level jobs like delivery services, people could work remotely in the gig economy such as by becoming a data scientist, human resource professional or any other technical jobs that offered a higher level of technical input.

“We want to see developing economies like us (Malaysia) develop an ecosystem wherein this kind of high-level gig economy is promoted and accepted,” he said at the Global Development Finance Institutions (Global DFI) online forum 2021, themed “Empowering Technology for Sustainable Development” today.

Also present was Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Amzad Mohamed.

On the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0), Norhalim said he believed that innovation would play the most crucial role to move a country towards IR 4.0.

“If we want to overcome the challenges today, particularly during the current Covid-19 era, what we really need is innovation.

“It is not necessary to be a cutting-edge innovation which requires huge sum of investments or funds but on how we can galvanise our population to solve the problems innovatively,” he said.

Citing an example, he said MTDC is currently collaborating with Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd to explore ways to assist small retailers to access technology and expand their footprint during the pandemic.

“This (going online) is not the traditional way of doing business for small retailers but with the current movement restrictions, we need to work with them in order to bring their products to the market,” he added.

Source: Bernama