INVEST IN PHARMACEUTICAL SECTOR, FIRMS URGED

COUNTRIES

will need to invest and support businesses in pharmaceutical industry where bio-technology is promising to develop a Covid-19 vaccine in new record time, says Bankers Association of Zambia (BAZ) chairperson,

Herman Kasekende.

Mr Kasekende said some of the much sought-after careerists during and after Covid-19 would be biomedical engineers, microbiologists, epidemiologists, biochemists and biophysicists.

“We have already seen how bio-technology is promising to develop a

Covid-19 vaccine in new record time! We anticipate this sector to grow, as well as the pharmaceutical industry.

“Some of the much sought-after careerists will be: biomedical engineers, microbiologists, epidemiologists, biochemists and biophysicists. Countries will need to invest and support businesses in these growth sectors,” he said in his write up on the impact of Covid-19.

Mr Kasekende said technological advances, including increased use of Artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT) were expected to displace many jobs.

On the other hand, he said, the transformation would up the demand for new skills to drive and support the new high-technology environments.

He said businesses would be operating in coders, data engineers, database administrators, machine learning experts, data scientists, statisticians and business analysts, among others.

Mr Kasekende said digital marketers would benefit more from the new trends and would demand a high median salary, since many companies would be willing to pay a premium even at entry level.

“According to the UN’s work agency, hundreds of millions of people could be left without work due to the impact of Covid-19. In the US alone, over 30 million could have lost their source of livelihood having to resort to Federal and State handouts.

“On the other hand, however, this pandemic has accelerated digital service channels, e-Commerce and workforce transformation. The retooling of the workforce and repurposing of the organisation will demand a huge amount of resilience, agility and humility at all levels,” he said.