IDB lists technology´s gains, threats to Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo.- Inter-AmericanDevelopment Bank (IDB) president Luis Alberto Moreno on Tuesday said therevolution which robotics and automation pose has become a threat to jobs in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean, most notably in telemarketing.

He said it´s a potentialproblem for several countries in the region including Dominican Republic,"where the call centers have flourished."

Moreno said automationhas reached activities such as retail and financial services, noting thatoptimists on the advances in the artificial intelligence process will herald anera of prosperity mankind has never seen, whereas for the most pessimistic thosetechnologies could make half of the most popular occupations obsolete, such as autobody welding, sewing of garments or the filing of documents.

Those activities, hesaid, will be performed more efficiently by intelligent machines, stoking fear thatmany people will remain on the sidelines in the labor market.

Lecturing as guestspeaker in the National Business Council´s (Conep) 8th annualbusiness convention 2015 in the Jaraguahotel, Moreno cited as an example that technological change is coming fasterand stronger, the IDB´s signing of anagreement with a Korean company to donate robots to teach math to preschoolchildren in Costa Rica.