Target of 35 pct skilled workers by 2020 achievable, says Riot
KUCHING: The Human Resources Ministry is confident of achieving its target of 35 per cent skilled workers nationwide by 2020.
Its minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot said presently skilled workforce constituted 28 per cent of the total workforce in the country, short by eight per cent of the target set by the ministry.
“The current percentage of skilled workers in the country stands only at 28 per cent, which is still very little. The target for our skilled workers in the country for 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) is 35 per cent.”
“That means for the three and a half years, we will need to increase our percentage of skilled workforce by at least seven or eight per cent,” said Riot at a media conference after paying a courtesy call on Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg at Wisma Bapa Malaysia yesterday.
He believed that the target was achievable because of the country now has 32 industrial training institutes, including three in Sarawak.
Apart from the three industrial training institutes, the federal government had approved the setting up of Serian Industrial Training Institute in Serian Division — the site for which had been identified and paid for, added Riot.
And with the blessings from the late Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem and present Chief Minister Abang Johari, he expected the project to be “plain sailing”.
On the project cost, Riot said as all the industrial training institutes in the nation were built at not less than RM250 million each — the new one would not be an exception.
“None of our ILP (industrial training institutes) cost less than RM250 million, so I would say it would be at least RM250 million. It is going to be a big one,” the Serian MP said.
On foreign workforce, Riot said compared with 2015, the statistics of 2016 showed that there was a reduction of foreign workers in Malaysia.
“In the year of 2015, (in terms of) the number of foreign workers, we had 2.1 million workers. We had reduced it to 1.9 million as of Dec 31, 2016,” he said.
As of Dec 31 last year, Indonesian workers constituted the biggest group of foreign workers in Malaysia at 758,487, followed by Nepalese (405,336) and Bangladeshis (252,365).
These foreign workers mainly work in the manufacturing sector ( 648,621), construction sector (387,934), plantation sector ( 268,478) and service sector (253,120).