increases the risk profile of msb companies which companies must carefully consider. it can lead to a loss of focus on longer term competitive positioning which remains key to any successful business, compromise service quality standards and heighten compliance risks. the insights gained from a deeper understanding of customer needs and priorities should serve to focus competitive strategies on how to improve the customer experience. we firmly believe this needs to be an important part of the conversation in pursuing the goals of more inclusive and efficient remittance solutions. we are encouraged by the efforts of some msb companies that have responded to greater competition through a focus on innovation and investing in building a trusted company brand that consumers can be confident in. as an example, today, there are 17 remittance service providers that have introduced digital remittance services, almost double the number only 2 years ago. the requirement for employers to pay foreign workers ’ salaries through their local bank accounts starting next year will provide further impetus for the digitalisation of remittance services. with a high level of smartphone penetration among migrants in johor bahru at 74 % and internet access at 90 %, significant opportunities exist to promote e - remittances. currently, outward remittances conducted through mobile phones or the internet represents less than 10 % of total outward remittances recorded by msb companies. increasing this share can lower costs associated with cash handling for both businesses and the economy, creating a virtuous cycle for affordable remittance services. project greenback kota kinabalu as one chapter comes to an end, another begins. in continuation of our efforts to encourage ongoing positive developments in the remittance market, bank negara malaysia and the world bank are pleased to take the project greenback partnership to malaysia ’ s second remittance champion city – the city of kota kinabalu. on behalf of bank negara malaysia let me thank y bhg. datuk juanis solidau for his presence here today to mark the handover, and to dewan bandaraya kota kinabalu for agreeing to host the project. we are very excited about the prospect of bringing the project to kota kinabalu, which will offer the opportunity to apply successful lessons from johor bahru, and also new and different experiences to build on. this will include a focus on supporting e - remittances given the large number of migrant workers staying in remote areas. conclusion as the chinese philosopher lao tzu famously said “ a journey of a thousand miles

, efficiency, equality and the ownership of property, london, allen & unwin, 1964. a similar view would be put forward a couple of decades later by another nobel laureate, wassily leontief, in “ technological advance, economic growth, and the distribution of income ”, population and development review, 9, 3, 1983. the implications of this terrifying prospect for income distribution – which meade dubbed the “ brave new capitalists ’ paradise ” – are the centrepiece of a short, sharp article by benjamin friedman, “ ‘ brave new capitalists ’ paradise ’ : the jobs? ”, the new york review of books, 7 november 2013. bis central bankers ’ speeches high - paid jobs requiring considerable educational attainment, to the expense of mid - skilled jobs. a recent, widely - cited study by two researchers at oxford has estimated that 47 per cent of existing jobs in the united states risk being automated out of existence, possibly within a decade or two. 21 other analysts, at the bruegel research centre, 22 have produced estimates of over 50 per cent for the main european countries, including italy ( which so far appears to have suffered more from globalisation and the heightened competition of the emerging market economies than from technological innovation ). such estimates will certainly make a powerful impression on readers, but they must be handled with great caution, given the patent difficulty of assigning risk percentages to jobs whose content may change radically thanks to the new technology itself. in the past we have seen drastic transformations in the composition of employment : just think of the drastic drop in agricultural employment in the industrial countries since world war ii. the destruction of some jobs will certainly correspond to the creation of new ones, and the net result is anything but a foregone conclusion, though of course we cannot ignore the adverse effects characteristic of a phase of transition like the present. as yet, the new information and communications technology is still complementary to managerial and intellectual jobs but substitutive of routine tasks. the new wave of technological innovation in the fields mentioned earlier ( robotics, genomics, artificial intelligence ) could nevertheless have a substantial impact on the labour demand relative to non - routine tasks that cannot, apparently, be standardised, at both high and low levels of skill. 23 the second question is the relationship between technological progress and the increase in income inequality so forcefully anticipated by meade. such a vast issue cannot be discussed in a few lines. the sensation made by thomas piketty ’ s capital in the twenty