KUALA LUMPUR: Shortage of the right skill workforce particularly in the engineering profession is the most challenging talent issue for Malaysia.
Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz emphasised on the importance of talent management as Malaysia is positioned well to ride on the current global trend.
"Without the right management of human capital, it is going to be very difficult for us to realise the aspiration to become a very industrialised nation," he said in his keynote speech here tonight at the Ministers Pioneering Excellence: Creating A Talent-Driven Economy Government Policies and Practices' Programme, a panel discussion organised by HRD Corp in conjunction with the National Training Week (NTW) 2024.
Tengku Zafrul said Malaysia is in a sweet spot where industries are converging as companies and countries are realigning and redefining their supply chain.
He added that many companies are looking at Malaysia as investment destination which will benefit local workforce.
He also pointed out the importance of talent management as the country is involved in 16 free trade agreements (FTAs) which require talents.
"We have many national strategies that evolves around the importance of talent.
"We can talk about infrastructure, rule of law, (and) ecosystem but everything goes back to the issue of talent," he said.
To achieve succesful execution of national plans such as New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP) and recently-launched National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS), Tengku Zafrul said his ministry and relevant ministries are working together to accelerate pilot of Academy In Industry programme.
He pointed out the role of Majlis TVET Negara where the government works closely with the industry, academia and talents to ensure the success of our national strategies.
On the urgent need to destigmatised TVET, TengkubZafrul said the conventional view of failure is slowly changing as more awareness are created.
He added that the industry also has to play a role in ensuring that TVET students have a good role as well as better compensation and wages.
"If you look at the developed countries, TVET is a very important stream towards industrialisation in Germany and many other countries," he told reporters after the event.
Although Malaysia's talents are in tough spot, Tengku Zafrul is optimistic that it can be geared up as the country has time to create talents.
"Investments will take two to three years. We have time to train our engineers and at the same time, it important that we are agile and dynamic in our policies," he said.