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Opinion
December 21, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 26
software company Avast and Bucharest-born robotic process automation (RPA) company UiPath.
But digitisation isn’t just a task for the private sector, McKinsey analysts believe, saying that
the public sector also needs to get involved in using digital technology to improve the business environment and for governments to promote the adoption of new technologies and create positive conditions for startups and high tech businesses.
The report also stresses that rapid action is needed. “We believe that to benefit fully from digital transformation, the time for CEE to act is now,” says McKinsey. The consultancy identifies three reasons for this. The first is specific to the region, where the CEE economies are booming, yet there are already signs already that the fast growth is slowing.
Then there are two global factors. McKinsey believes the world is “on the cusp of a fourth Industrial Revolution, in which new technology will fundamentally transform the economy and the labour market. This seismic change will drive
growth and create many new professions: big data scientists, machine-learning engineers, and new technology designers, to name just a few. But it will also create serious challenges.”
The report points to the potential for automation in the region, saying that to “to avoid potential spikes in unemployment, immediate action is needed, such as updating the education system to teach the skills that will be required in the future and creating a support system for lifelong learning.” Indeed, an earlier OECD report identified workers in Slovakia as the most likely among the 32 OECD members to lose their jobs as automation technologies are adopted.
And finally, “the rules of the digital game are crystallising and new ecosystems emerging”, says McKinsey’s report, and many companies are now drawing up long-term digital strategies. “If the countries of CEE wish to compete and capture the €200bn digital opportunity, they urgently
need to come together and devise a robust long- term digital strategy of their own,” the report concludes.