‘COUNTRY NEEDS HIGHER PAYING JOBS’
Economic structure now bottom-heavy with 70pc of Malaysians receiving cash handouts, says minister
THERE is a need to restructure the economy to create better paying jobs and reduce country’s overreliance on cheap unskilled foreign labour, said Deputy Defence Minister Liew Chin Tong.
He said the economy was currently a triangle-shaped, where the bottom was huge with 70 per cent Malaysians receiving cash handouts such as the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M).
“That is a sign that our economy is huge at the bottom, and most people are not happy with it. We need to think of new ways to create a middle-class society.
“The concern should not be on the exact minimum wage figure, but how we use the levers of power and government tools to create better-paying jobs.
“We need to create jobs that pay better by restructuring the economy,” said Liew after a panel discussion on “Ekonomi Rakyat Series #2: Turmoil in Global Finance: is Malaysia Vulnerable?”, organised by the Malay Chambers of Commerce, here, yesterday.
Citing an example, Liew said one of the jobs that was suitable for military veterans was as guards, but it only paid between RM1,000 and RM1,500.
“No one would want to do it and it has become a domain of unskilled foreign labour, and some of them would hire illegal workers, which is wrong,” he said.
The World Bank macroeconomics head Dr Ndiame Diop, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Economics and Capital Markets Department head Nurhisham Hussein and Dr Shahridan Faiez of DPMM were among the panellists.
Nurhisam said the recent RM50 rise to minimum wage would have no impact on the economy and people.
He said EPF data showed the economy would be able to handle a 10 to 15 per cent rise in wage for now, but the RM1,500 minimum wage promised by the government would likely be achieved gradually in four years.
Meanwhile, Diop said in order to achieve a high-income nation status, Malaysia must not only focus on the growth rate, but also seriously consider quality and distribution of income growth.
He said Malaysia could achieve the status in the next four to seven years.
“In order to achieve the target, a country needs to record good growth each year as it depends on performance.
“If the growth is slow, it will take more time, and if it is high, it will be faster. Time will tell. Because we cannot have a forecast or a baseline forecast on growth next year. It is hard, especially in this global environment, to predict growth.
“What is important is not for Malaysia to reach that level, but the quality and distribution of growth, like how people can find a better-paying job. That’s really what is important,” he said.
Diop said Malaysia was on track to move to the next phase of growth and was ahead of other developing countries.
“Malaysia currently has a strong and resilient economic fundamentals. In fact, this country can be a benchmark and an example to other developing countries.”