Najib bets on move from hardware to software
(TMI) KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 — The Najib administration will allocate 40 per cent of 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) funding to soft infrastructure such as skills development as compared with 22 per cent under the 9MP in a bid to overcome the nation’s talent crunch.
The 10MP report released to the public today said that the transformation of Malaysia to a high income country required a switch to high value added and knowledge intensive activities and said a shift in emphasis from physical infrastructure to soft infrastructure is required.
Malaysia has long been criticised for mismanaging its talent pool and squandering its human resources as skilled talent surged out of the country to neighbouring Singapore, Australia, Canada, US and the UK while millions of low skilled foreign labourers flooded in.
Under previous administrations the main focus was mainly on building infrastructure and prestige projects, while various brain gain and human resource development schemes failed to make meaningful headway into transforming Malaysia into a developed country.
This was particularly true of the 22-year long Mahathir era which was characterised by expensive mega-projects such as Putrajaya and the Bakun Dam. This contrasted to the approach by high income advanced countries such as Norway and Switzerland which focused instead on nurturing highly skilled human resources.
Figures provided by the report showed that only 28 per cent of the Malaysian labour force is considered skilled compared with 51 per cent in Singapore, 43 per cent in Finland and 36.3 per cent in the US while 77 per cent of Malaysians were educated only up to the SPM level or equivalent. A fifth of Malaysian students also failed to meet minimum benchmarks in math and science and only 28 per cent of Malaysian jobs were in the higher skills bracket.
“Asian countries such as the Republic of Korea and Singapore have propelled themselves into the group of developed nations within a generation as a result of precise, deliberate and purposeful prioritization of focus sectors while concentrating on developing, upskilling and delivering the right talents required to drive growth in those sectors,” said the report. “For Malaysia, the development of a first world talent base requires nothing less than a comprehensive, all inclusive national effort from the public and private sectors as well as civil society.”
Three areas have been identified for the bulk of 10MP soft infrastructure investment — skills development, providing enablers to support concentrated industrial clusters and specialisation and increasing R&D and venture capital funding.
The government will also move away from building physical infrastructure and operating public services to buying services from the private sector.
A new Talent Corporation will be formed by 2011 that will be tasked to source and deliver top talent from overseas and locally that are critical for key economic sectors. An integrated human capital and talent development framework will also be adopted.
Government scholarships, a controversial issue in Malaysia due to ethnic quotas, will be given to top students from around the world to pursue their studies in Malaysia and who will be encouraged to contribute to the Malaysian talent pool.
The top five per cent of STPM students will be offered scholarships and Malaysians studying in top foreign universities will be given sponsorship for their final year, provided they return to serve in Malaysia.
The civil service will increase its focus on hiring high-calibre young talent and will offer 60,000 scholarships to students in local and foreign universities — an increase of 27 per cent over the Ninth Malaysia Plan. Scholarships will also be more flexible and graduates will have the option of serving part of their bond in GLCs and the private sector.
Other measures being considered to boost the local talent pool include engaging the Malaysian global Diaspora, estimated to be at least 700,000 strong. Regular dialogues will be held between the government and members of the diaspora where they can exchange ideas on policy formulation. Prominent members of the grouping will also be invited to serve on advisory boards.
