MALAYSIA TO CREATE 1.9 MLN JOBS OF MEDIUM AND HIGH-INCOME SALARY BRACKETS

BEIJING, Sept 16 (Bernama)-- Malaysia is to create an additional 3.3 million
jobs, of which over 60 per cent will be in medium or high-income salary brackets
to help turn it into a high-income nation by 2020, said Human Resource Minister
Dr S.Subramaniam.

"At the same time, 600,000 people will move out of the lowest salary bracket and
the number of people working in middle and high-income salary brackets will
increase from 5.1 million to 9.2 million."

He said this in his address at the 5th APEC Human Resource Development
Ministerial Meeting here under the sub-theme, "Devote priority attention to
maintaining and expanding employment and adopt employment-oriented
macro-economic policies".

Dr Subramaniam said almost 50 per cent of the additional jobs required
vocational or diploma qualifications.

"Therefore, more robust measures will be taken to transform our education system
and worker training programmes that will position our labour force to meet the
changing needs of the global economy.

"Today, only 28 per cent of the workforce are in the highly-skilled
category. This is not in line with a high-income economy that Malaysians aspire to
achieve.

"We need continuous education, on-the-job training and re-skilling as well as
multi-skilling to benefit from new technologies," he added.

Presently, Malaysia's per capita income is about US$7,600 and about 3.8 per cent
of Malaysians live below the poverty line.

"Rewards in term of higher remuneration have not been in tandem with skills,
achievements and merit," said Dr Subramaniam.

He said Malaysia was committed to improving the skills of its workforce,
increasing their income and reducing its dependency on foreign labour.

"Malaysia has embarked on a long-term policy agenda through the New Economic
Model (NEM), which is premised on three guiding principles to drive its economic
progress."

These are: increasing the per capita income from the current US$7,600 to
US$15,000 by 2020, ensuring that economic development is sustained and managed
in protecting the nation's environment and natural resources, and ensuring the
benefits of economic growth are enjoyed by every citizen of the country.

Twelve National Key Economic Areas have been identified to drive the NEM towards
making Malaysia a high-income nation by 2020, and achieving an economic growth
of 7 per cent during that period.

Meanwhile, China Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, Yin Weimin put
up three proposals in his keynote address to enhance APEC members' cooperation
to develop human resources and jointly address existing problems in economic and
social development.

He said member countries should develop a long-term HRD mechanism,
vigorously promote employment and realise inclusive growth.

The second proposal is on producing three documents -- Ministerial Joint
Statement, Action Plan and APEC Skills Development Promotion Project -- after
the meeting to ensure that it has been effective and fruitful.

The third proposal in to enhance the dynamism of the APEC Human Resource
Development Working Group (HRDWG) and conduct broad and indepth regional
cooperation. The cooperation among government, business and academia should also
be further enhanced for better human resource capacity-building.
-- BERNAMA