Minister Riot: Malaysia set to hit skilled workforce target by 2020

With slightly less than three years to hit the target of 35% skilled workforce, Human Resources Minister Datuk Richard Riot has expressed his confidence in Malaysia achieving the target by 2020, New Straits Times reports.

He added that the country is on the right track in producing the skilled workers in line with country's vision to achieve a high-income nation status.

Speaking to reporters at the launching 'Labour Market Information Data Warehouse (LMIDW)' project and a seminar on Labour Market: Trend and Challenges at Mariott Hotel, Riot said: "In 2015, we raised it to 28% and in 2016, the number increased to 31%."

This translates into approximately 4.5 million skilled workers out of the 14.8 million strong Malaysian workforce in 2016, an increase from the 3.4 million skilled workers in 2015.

"With the increase, I'm very positive that our target can be achieved," Riot added.

On the LMIDW, Riot stated that it will be a centralised database towards the establishment of a fully integrated, well-functioned labour market information and analysis system. The new data warehouse can store a comprehensive data and information of the country's local workforce.

"This will be able to maintain or reduce the country's unemployment rate at 3.5%.

"The data will also reduce dependency on foreign workforce and issues of job mismatch," he added.

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