The biggest factor influencing businesses today is technology, said a top bank executive on Friday from the Singapore Summit.

“Technology is changing the way we operate. Technology will change competition, terms of competition and this is positive,” said BNP Paribas Chairman Jean Lemierre. “We need to accept this, we need to invest, we need to adapt.”

Speaking to CNBC, he added that technology will change jobs, rather than eliminate them.

“I do not belong to the group of people who think that technology will destroy jobs — technology will change the jobs,” Lemierre said.

“We need to pay a lot of attention to training, education, adaptation. At the end of the day, it will be an element for growth and it will be positive. We shouldn’t see technology as negative, technology is a positive element for the world,” he added.

BNP Paribas said in February that it planned to invest 3 billion euros ($3.57 billion) in digital technology over the next three years, the Financial Times reported.

Lemierre was upbeat about the broader economy, saying healthy growth is observed in U.S., Asia and Europe. Market volatility, meanwhile, is low, he added.

Source: cnbc china
Technology won't destroy jobs, it'll just change them, says chairman of major bank