'The idea technology leads to unemployment is wrong'

BURSA, Turkey

The idea that technology will cause unemployment is mistaken, according to the chairwoman of Hepsiburada, Turkey's leading e-commerce platform.

"The definition of unemployment should be changed. What we now call unemployment in the future could be a new job," Hanzade Dogan Boyner told the 8th Uludag Economy Summit in Bursa, northwestern Turkey, on Friday.

Technology should be part of corporate culture, and companies should be work to keep pace with the digital era, she underlined.

She added: "Sectors and companies which no one expected to collapse disappeared in the digital era."

Policymakers, the business world, and opinion leaders must discuss the management of new technology, she underlined.

Also speaking at the summit, Tansu Yegen, technology firm UiPath's vice president for Europe, said companies that use software robots gain momentum and become more competitive.

Yegen underlined that such software robots do not mean firing employees but generating employment.

"Most digital projects failed due to this fallacy. Digital robots create nearly 50 percent additional employment capacity," he said.

The two-day Uludag Economy Summit, which ends on Saturday, focuses on industry, trade, manufacturing, finance, energy, agriculture, and technology.

The summit attracts businesspeople, economists, top officials and academics from Turkey and around the world.