KUALA LUMPUR – Human Resources Minister Steven Sim has stressed the importance of collaboration between relevant ministries to ensure comprehensive discussions on the development of the nation’s labour market.
Sim, who was speaking at an event last night featuring three other ministers as panel members, said cooperation between ministries thus far had progressed smoothly.
“When it comes to human capital, the Human Resources Ministry has a bigger stake, but other ministries are able to incorporate their views, understandings and policies of human capital development within their own ministries and policies.
“We’re not competing in a marathon together. Instead, we’re in a relay race on the same team, working together to ensure a team victory,” he added.
Held in conjunction with National Training Week 2024, the event themed “Ministers Pioneering Excellence: Creating a Talent-Driven Economy – Government Policies and Practices” provided a platform for ministers to share and discuss pertinent topics.
Commenting on the need for a minimum wage mechanism, Sim said the Minimum Wage Consultative Council would soon present a minimum wage figure to the cabinet following its meeting on Tuesday.
He also highlighted the progressive wage policy as a government initiative, which provides subsidies for employers, especially those from small and medium enterprises, to enable higher salaries for employees on the condition that workers are upskilled and reskilled.
It was previously reported that the ministry was aiming for the policy’s pilot project to benefit 1,000 companies and an estimated 1.05 million workers nationwide, with RM50 million allocated for the initiative.
Meanwhile, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz emphasised the importance of developing the nation’s workforce to meet industry demands, in line with the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 and the National Semiconductor Strategy.
Noting that a lack of a demand-appropriate workforce and the right human capital talent management might hinder the nation’s goals of becoming an industrialised nation, Tengku Zafrul pointed to Malaysia’s involvement with 16 bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs).
“In those FTAs, talent is the focus, as we want the economic spillover effects to benefit local communities,” he said, emphasising the government’s commitment to utilise all its available resources to improve efforts aimed at producing the necessary resources.
Expressing similar sentiments, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir said there was a need for the nation’s education system to be “flexible” in the way it provided training and employed teaching methodologies for students.
Positing that there might be a shift towards the idea of “multiversities,” Zambry said the concept of conventional universities might be “slowly obscured” by new learning and teaching developments.
This, Zambry said, could see tertiary education students being offered the opportunity to enrol themselves at different universities or faculties that provide unique specialised courses, thus upskilling themselves in preparation to join the workforce.
Previously, Zambry said higher education institutions’ vice-chancellors must assess industry demands and labour market needs to guarantee graduates were equipped for high-demand sectors.
The current lack of skilled workers can be attributed to a mismatch between industry advancements and the complexities arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, he added. – June 28, 2024