Malaysia targets 35 percent of workforce being skilled workers by 2020 hinh anh 1Deputy Minister of Human Resources Ismail Abd Muttalib (Source :themalaysiantimes)
Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysia will need to raise the ratio of skilled workers to 35 percent of its workforce in order to attain the status of a developed nation by 2020, said Deputy Minister of Human Resources Ismail Abd Muttalib.

Speaking at the Parliament meeting on November 30, the Deputy Minister said that currently only 28 percent of the 14.3 million workers in the country are skilled workers.

He added that the country does not want foreign workers to take the vacancies that could be filled by local workers. The recruitment of foreign workers is only open to five sectors which are less attractive to local workers, namely construction, agriculture, forestry, production and services.

A representative from the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), Nasrudin Hassan said the number of foreign workers in Malaysia has increased remarkably, which had resulted in a cash outflow of 28 billion Malaysian ringgit (RM) (nearly 9 billion USD) in 2014.

According to the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), about seven million foreign workers were working in the country as of June 2015, but only 2.2 million of them were legal workers.-VNA

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