SHAH ALAM - Behind Malaysia's emerging as a high-tech investment hub, foreign skilled workers are expected to have a better chance at job opportunities due to the shortage of local talent.
National Skilled Workers Organisation (Belia Mahir) Secretary-General Mohammad Rizan Hassan said that investor companies had no choice but to use foreign labour if it was difficult to obtain local skilled workers.
According to him, this poses a significant challenge for the country because the younger generation is now seen as lacking confidence in joining such careers and increasingly moving away from the formal sector.
"Therefore, there is an urgent need to implement a large-scale 'school to career' awareness program so that these local talents have an identity and high motivation to respond to what the government provides.
"If this is not seen by the younger generation, just accept the fact that these job opportunities will be taken by workers from India.
"This is not impossible because investors come to do business, not charity. If they have invested but have difficulty in obtaining local talent, the options available are either talent or international experts," he told Sinar Harian.
He said that investments such as Microsoft, for example, reflect investors' confidence in Malaysia's digital economy potential and contribute to the welfare and prosperity of the people and the nation.
"When it comes to incoming investments that have an economic impact on the people and the nation, we should return to a high sense of nationalism to ensure that potential workers or local talents are not marginalised.
"What does not marginalised mean? It involves issues of comprehensive access to education and training, the quality of training systems, state-of-the-art training equipment, trained and expert instructors, industry-approved training curricula, international mobility programs for students, and most importantly, future career guarantees," he said.