SINGAPORE - The economic fallout from Covid-19 has affected not just the most vulnerable workers, but also a broad swathe of the middle-class around the world.
The other panellists were: McDonald's president and chief executive Chris Kempczinski, IBM executive chairman Ginni Rometty, and Blackstone co-founder and chief executive Stephen Schwarzman. The session was moderated by Bloomberg Quicktake chief correspondent Jason Kelly. This involves re-focusing budgets and fiscal policy in a way that will broaden opportunities and job growth, which in turn creates a sense of optimism that unites people, he said.
McDonald's Mr Kempczinski noted how his company has had to work out multiple career and training pathways for its employees, from restaurant managers to franchisees. This is an area where the new generation of AI tools can help, he said, as they can identify, based on one's career history, the transferable skills that have accumulated along the way.
Universal basic income Responding to moderator Jason Kelly's question on whether governments should institute a universal basic income , Mr Tharman called it a"bad idea" on two counts."The idea of giving everyone quantum of money is very different from giving the poor and the lower-middle income group the support they need."