Nothing New About Malaysians Working In Singapore Says Saravanan

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Speaking at the launch of TalentCorp’s Mynext initiative, human resources minister M Saravanan said some people work dangerous, dirty and difficult jobs in another country due to the lucrative income. (Bernama pic)KUALA LUMPUR: Human resources minister M Saravanan has downplayed reports of Malaysians moving to Singapore to work, saying that it is “nothing new”.
He said such trends also occurred in other parts of the world, where locals would work in neighbouring countries due to a stronger currency.
“Malaysians go to Singapore because their currency is stronger, but the same can be said for Indonesians coming to Malaysia. It is nothing new,” he said at a press conference after the launch of TalentCorp’s mynext initiative.
He pointed out that some people were inclined to work dangerous, dirty and difficult jobs in another country as opposed to their own due to the lucrative income.
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It was reported that Malaysians were working in Singapore as the average income ranged from S$1,900 (RM6,095) to S$3,000 (RM9,624).
Saravanan said several factors like minimum wage and the economy needed to be considered to adequately solve the brain drain issue in the country.
He also acknowledged the crucial role that the gig economy had played in reducing unemployment.
However, Saravanan said the struggle his ministry was facing was unemployability due to skills mismatch which could be traced back to the outdated education system.
“It is too exam-oriented. This needs to change and the higher education ministry must find ways to incorporate employable skills into university courses,” he said.
On a different note, Saravanan said it was “typical” of DAP’s Kula Segaran to call him out last week for allegedly failing to provide an adequate answer on the money spent by the Human Resources Development Corporation (HRD Corp) for overseas trips.
This was especially so since elections were around the corner, Saravanan said.
“This is DAP’s modus operandi, politicising things. Kula could have just approached me,” he said, stressing that he was not angered by it and understood that the Ipoh Barat MP was just “doing his job”. - FMT

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