‘Cybersecurity risk key challenge of future’

Experts at a conference yesterday emphasised the importance of cybersecurity to allow us to truly reap the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

There is a need for concerted and strategic efforts from the government in Bangladesh to face the challenges posed by the fourth industrial revolution through appropriate economic and labour market policies and strategies, they opined.

The Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAD), Chattogram, organised the daylong conference "The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Challenges and Opportunities for Bangladesh" at a hotel in the port city.

As chief guest, Chattogram Divisional Commissioner Md Kamrul Hasan said, "Bangladesh has already entered into the era of Fourth Industrial Revolution but majority of its success depends on the effective participation of accountants as well as professionals from other sectors."

Former ICMAB president Mohammad Arif said, "The 4IR is paving the way for transformative changes in the way we live and radically disrupting almost every business sector."

"The main benefits of 4IR are higher productivity, improved quality of life, creation of new markets and lowering of barrier to entrepreneurship though a fusion of advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of things, 3-D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing and other technologies."

"The main challenges of 4IR are cybersecurity risks, inequality, disruption of core industries and ethical issues. We will get the benefit of 4IR if we're able to find ways to mitigate these risks," he added.

Executive Director of South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) Prof Dr Selim Raihan said, "Social sectors, like health and education, have already started seeing new approaches and potentials of benefits of 4IR."

"While there are fears of job losses due to automation, there is also scope for the creation of new jobs driven by the emergence of new production and supply processes of goods and services," he added while presenting a paper on "The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Turning Challenges into Opportunities".

Senior Investment Officer of Asian Development Bank Bidyut Kumar Saha presented his paper on "The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Readiness for Financial Sector".

More than 100 participants from several bank and financial institutes attended the daylong conference while Ahmed Jamal, deputy governor of Bangladesh bank, AKM Delwer Hussain, President of South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) and Abu Bakar Siddique, president of ICMAB, joined the conference as special guests.