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Vietnam: Tens of thousands of hotel, bank workers at risk of losing jobs

The rapid development of technology is a threat to workers, as robots can now replace many hotel and bank officers.

A representative of a bank said the average time customers have to wait to make transactions at banks has been cut by 30-40 percent thanks to AI technology application.

When customers come to the counter, the cameras there recognize who they are. The Kiosk system will ask what kind of transactions customers want to make and the information will be transferred to bank officers within five seconds. After that, the transactions will be carried out quickly when their turn comes. Some banks are using ATMs for cash transactions.

The digital transformation in the banking sector can bring big benefits to customers and allow them to be served better. However, the dark side of the transformation is that a high number of bank officers will lose their jobs.

Experts warn that the development of high technology, together with the pandemic, will cause a loss of thousands of jobs.

The Q3 finance reports of 21 commercial banks showed that in the first nine months of the year, 10 out of 21 banks cut 9,000 jobs.

As for hotel workers, the pandemic is not the only reason behind the big layoff campaigns recently. The application of high technology is also a reason. They have been replaced by robots.

Truong Anh Dung, General Director of the Directorate General of Vocational Education, predicted that 1.4 billion workers would not have suitable skills by 2030, while one-third of current jobs will change because of AI and IT. This is a big problem the whole world has to face.

According to Dung, machines and robots will have skills equal to workers’, while 43 percent of enterprises will cut down their workforce.

However, one-third of enterprises will upsize their staff. Job cutting will be a bigger trend and 40 percent of workers will need retraining, while 94 percent of enterprises will require new skills.

The digital transformation in the banking sector can bring big benefits to customers and allow them to be served better. However, the dark side of the transformation is that a high number of bank officers will lose their jobs.
 
G20 countries, when discussing the development of digital economy, put forward three issues 1/ what is the digital future? 2/ what are Government priorities for digital trade? 3/ what are digital skills needed in career education.

They believe that digital skills are the basic factor to develop digital economy and to be sure that no one will be left behind.

A survey found that 53 percent of Vietnam’s businesses have no idea what necessary skills for the future are. Not only students but 50 million current workers will have to be retrained to adapt to the digital economy.

Dung, when discussing human resources for digital transformation, stressed that people will be the center in the process and ASEAN defines the human resources preparation as one of three pillars.

The ASEAN Technical and Vocational Education Council has been set up to do three things – promote the institution to develop human resources for digital transformation; get enterprises more deeply involved in the human resource training; and develop digital skills.

Studies have concluded that once people are at the center, GDP may increase by 2 percent, and that if workers’ skills do not improve after 10 years, $5 trillion will be lost each year.

According to Nguyen Cong Quynh Lan, one of the most important issues is building a ‘digital transformation spirit’ in business culture – – to always improve and renovate, and always invest in human resources to meet the requirements of the digital transformation process.

Duong Thanh Tam, deputy general director of VinCommerce, said it is necessary to show employees why they have to join the process and what benefits they will get. When employees know this, they will easily integrate into digital transformation. 

Luong Bang

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/en/feature/tens-of-thousands-of-hotel-bank-workers-at-risk-of-losing-jobs-692496.html