Job skills need to evolve, WTO chief says
Azevedo says digital consumerism heavily impacting retail market and its value chains
Globalisation and emerging technologies are rapidly morphing governments, markets and institutions at such a rapid pace that old ways of doing business are failing to keep up with change, said experts yesterday at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
But it’s not too late to meet future challenges for those who step up efforts now to meet the future, they said.
Roberto Azevedo, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, said expected job loss in coming years can be attributed more to emerging technology than globalisation and said his 164-member global group is working hard to embrace change.
The old trade networks and systems used to transport goods around the world are still needed, but Azevedo said, said new digital consumerism is impacting heavily the bricks-and-mortar retail market and its value chains. “When someone invented the wheel, someone lost a job,” Azevedo said, noting that digital empires such as Amazon are rewriting how people shop and consume goods.
A reality
“E-commerce is a reality that is not going to go away, it’s growing faster,” he said. “Business to consumer changes the world completely.”
He said the traditional value chain of shipping goods by containers to retailers and then on to consumers is experiencing disruption.
“We’re changing from an era of containers to an era of small packages,” he said. “People need to facilitate this new trade of the soft package or you are going to be left behind.”