Hire locals first, companies urged

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FEDERAL Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin is urging companies to hire Malaysians instead of employing foreigners.

“We have to be prepared with skilled human capital to generate income for the country. So all industries need to start employing semi-skilled and unskilled local workers and reduce dependency on foreign labour.

“In the economic and social sense, foreign labour is not good in the long run.

“Some don’t even understand English and in such cases sign language needs to be used to get the message across,” he said.

Working together: Raja Nong Chik (in batik) shaking hands with participants of the luncheon talk. Looking on is Human Resource Ministry skills development director-general Dr Pang Chau Leong (right).

Raja Nong Chik said this after launching a luncheon programme for top civil servants and 30 chief executives of multinationals and government-linked companies (GLCs) in Kuala Lumpur.

The event was held as the beginning to form smart partnerships between federal government agencies and private companies to discuss issues such as human capital, technology as well as present and competency of the workforce.

It was organised by the department of skills development under the Human Resource Ministry.

They include six main industries in Kuala Lumpur namely oil and petrochemicals, retail hypermarket, telecommunication, finance, tourism and regional establishment.

During the event, most of the industry captains spoke on the importance of communication skills, the need for semi-skilled workers and new talent as well as making the industry more attractive among job seekers.

Raja Nong Chik said by 2020, the country plans to achieve the number 20 spot as a livable and high income city.

As such, he said, more Malaysians should be made multiskilled and earning a higher income.

“We have to make it attractive for young people especially in greater KL as we plan to attract multinational companies to set up business here.

“So the services should be like they are in Hong Kong or Singapore,” he said.

Malaysia is concentrating on 12 National Key Economic Area (NKEA) to promote the economy towards a high income by 2020, thus the commitment by all relevant stakeholders are important.

The NKEA is the base for the Economic Transformation Prog-ramme, whereby 131 initial projects need 3.3 million skilled workers in all the sectors in Malaysia.