PORT KLANG, March 15 — The country’s productivity rate must be increased to four per cent every year from the current 2.3 per cent to ensure the goal of making Malaysia a high income nation can be achieved, says Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
The prime minister said the issue of the country’s productivity which was closely associated with the skills of workers needed to be emphasised to achieve a developed nation status.
“One of the things closely related to the question of workers’ skills is the issue of productivity, we want the country’s productivity increase to touch four per cent every year, now we have only reached 2.3 per cent.
“I urge all parties to focus not only on increasing employment but how the productivity of every worker can be increased to at least, four per cent each year,” he said.
He was speaking at a programme themed, ‘Skilled Workers Are The Heartbeat to National Transformation 2050’ at the WIT College here today.
Also present was WIT College board of directors chairman, Tan Sri Zainal Rampak.
Meanwhile, Najib said one of the criteria needed to achieve developed nation status and advanced economy was that the people should have high income, and high income depended directly on the level of skills and education of the individual.
“This is because when we mention that we want more highly skilled workers, then it is closely related to, not only in terms of industrial needs, but also supports the government’s efforts to transform the country into a developed high income nation.
“…And the people enjoy appropriate monthly income in a developed nation,” he said.
Najib noted that only 28 per cent of Malaysians comprised those with high skills and the government wanted to increase it up to 35 per cent by 2020.
He said this was because a skilled workforce was capable of generating value-added work besides contributing to higher productivity and income.
The prime minister said if the country was at a low skilled workers’ level in whatever field, then every employee would earn a relatively low income if their respective productivity was not boosted.
Conversely, if employees adopted a multi-skill and multi-tasking approach, they would definitely be paid high salaries.
On his visit to the WIT College today, Najib said he became the first prime minister to visit the college in its 40 years of operation.
He said the college which was established by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) could compete with 511 other private colleges, based on the good marketability of its graduates.
“The college has produced many skilled workers, including from among the children of the workers.”
During the function, Najib announced an overall allocation of RM4 million for the WIT College to upgrade its facilities and equipment and look after the welfare of the children of low income workers.
He said an additional 620 student quota for skills development programmes would be allocated to the college besides an additional quota of 160 students under the Human Resources Development program.
He also announced the admission of 500 technical and vocational education training students under the higher education ministry to the college, besides asking Felda to sponsor 100 students to follow a diploma study programme.
At the event, Najib visited the automotive skills workshop and the welding and mechatronics workshop at the WIT College, and also cut a cake in conjunction with the college’s four-decade old establishment. — Bernama
