Malaysia’s strategic measures on free flow of skilled labour: Riot

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PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia will play its role via various strategic measures on the free flow of skilled labour outlined in the Asean Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint, says Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot.

This includes facilitating the issuance of visas and employment passes; mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs) for skilled professionals; concordance of skills and qualification for the service sector; and enhancing cooperation among Asean universities and technical and vocational institutions to uplift the skills of migrant labour.

“In addressing skilled labour needs in Asean, MRAs are in place for professionals such as doctors of medicine, dentists, nurses, engineers, architects, accountants, surveyors and tourism professionals.

“This means that highly trained and specialised professionals will find it easier to work in sub-regional co-operation,” said Riot.

He said this in his keynote address at the Forum on Asean Community 2015: ‘Managing Integration for Better Jobs and Shared Prosperity’ here today.

The one-day forum discussed preliminary findings of the report on Asean Community 2015 and related its usefulnes to the stakeholders.

It was organised by the Malaysian Human Resources Ministry and International Labour Organisation, with support and cooperation of the Asian Development Bank and Asean Secretariat.

The preliminary findings of the report on Asean Community 2015 indicates that too many people in Asean continue to have poor quality jobs despite impressive economic performance; 40 per cent or 121 million of Asean workers are
in low-income agriculture sector; 59 per cent of workers (179 million) of Asean workers are in vulnerable employment; and, high youth unemployment (13 per cent).

In his keynote address, Riot also offered Malaysia’s experience to Asean member states to work together on national competency standards development and skills certification which meet current industry demands.

This would inadvertently improve the skills of migrant labours, as well as strengthen people-to-people connectivity, he said. -Bernama