This looks like in tandem with our deputy Prime Minister’s announcement, as Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced that it expects Malaysia’s economy to return to growth in 2010.
According to a report by The Star Newsapper, the international development finance institution has forecast Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 4.5% next year.
It said Malaysia was expected to contract 2.5% in 2009 after registering minus 5.1% in the first half of the year and minus 1.2% in the third quarter.
The newspaper also noted that in a separate Asian Economic Monitor report for December 2009, the Manila-based institution said all the Asean-4 economies were pummeled by the precipitous drop in external demand but in terms of overall economic impact, Thailand and Malaysia were hurt the most.
All is still not that well. Dell Malaysia is letting some 700 workers go via a voluntary separation scheme (VSS) exercise.
According to a report by The Star newspaper, the 700 include those in the operator, supervisory and managerial positions at its Bukit Minyak plant here.
Dell corporate communication senior manager Jasmine Begum said the VSS scheme was being implemented because Dell was transferring the division that manufactured notebooks for Latin America, Canada and US markets to the group’s global manufacturing network.
“This means that the Bukit Minyak plant will only manufacture notebooks, desktops and servers for the South Asian and Australian markets,” she said.
The move would enable Dell Malaysia to be more cost-effective in its operations, reduce delivery time and enhance the quality of the products manufactured, Begum said.
Love the sea? Fancy a maritime job? Fret not, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has 2,000 job vacancies nationwide, with various positions up for grabs.
Earlier Bernama report noted that pending the completion of its training centre in 2012, MMEA director-general Datuk Mohd Amdan Kurish hopes the various positions would be filled by that year.
He said the construction of the centre at Sungai Ular in Jerantut, Pahang, was ongoing, adding that it was expected to be fully operational by the end of next year.
"By 2011, the centre is expected to be able to train up to 600 staff and 200 officers at a time.
"The vacancies would be filled in stages to ensure that maritime enforcement activities could be intensified indefinitely," Mohd Amdan said.
Need construction workers? No problem, there are more than 32,000 available for choosing. According to The Star newspaper a force of 12,000 foreign workers and over 10,000 locals registered with the Construction Labour Exchange Centre Bhd (CLAB) can be deployed to any contractor short of manpower.
CLAB chief executive Azlan Mohd Isa said there was no reason for contractors not to make use of them.
He said the 22,000 workers were involved in construction projects throughout the country but were available when their jobs were done.
“We encourage contractors to come to us because it is cheaper to source labour through us than through agents.
“If contractors’ needs do not match our local work pool, we will look to the foreign workforce to fulfil their needs. The aim is to reduce the intake of new foreign workers,” he said.
“Workers registered with us get insurance and compensation benefits and we provide comprehensive welfare to our workers,” Azlan said.
Despite caution about income indequacy post-retirement, the withdrawal have increased last quarter. According to Bernama report, some RM1.97bil was withdrawn under the Employees Provident Fund Retirement Withdrawals in the third quarter of 2009, an increase from the RM1.64bil in the corresponding period last year.
Some RM1.41bil of the RM1.97bil, was withdrawn as Lump Sum Age 55 Withdrawal, up 14.2% from that in Q3 2008, EPF said in a statement on its unaudited results on Wednesday.
EPF chief executive officer Tan Sri Azlan Zainol said the remaining RM557.05mil was withdrawn under the Flexible Age 55 Withdrawal, up 38.05% from the RM403.51mil last year.
“Nonetheless, 72% of retirement withdrawals still consist of lump sum withdrawals. We hope to see this amount decrease over time as more members become increasingly aware that lump sum withdrawal will likely lead to income inadequacy during retirement,” he said.
The report also quoted Azlan as saying members had exercised greater prudence and care in making withdrawals for housing as showed by a more cautious behaviour due to the present economic conditions.
Few months back, reports of shortage of engineers surfaced. Well, it resurfaced again in form of an interview with Starbiz (The Stars Newspaper's business section).
The newpaper was quoting Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC) chief executive officer Datuk Boonler Somchit who said that the country is not producing sufficient engineers to meet the needs of the technology sector, which will undermine the country’s competitive edge as a destination for foreign direct investments
He told StarBiz, citing data from the Education Ministry, that both public and private universities in the country produced over 13,700 first-degree graduates in engineering last year, which “is not adequate to meet the needs of the technology sector in the country.”
“Let us say if a multinational corporation (MNC) requires 50 engineers, 100 MNCs would need 5,000 engineers.
“The 13,700 fresh graduates that we produce is definitely not enough to go round to meet the needs of the MNCs and local technology companies,” he said.
In Penang, there are 760 companies in the free industrial zone and industrial estates, of which 20 are multinational corporations involved in designing and development work, according to Boonler.
Readers can go read the entire article in The Star's online portal.
DOCTORATE holders are among those who registered with JobsMalaysia, a government portal to help graduates get jobs.
Wired agency, Bernama quoted Deputy Human Resources Minis-ter Senator Datuk Maznah Mazlan as saying that from the 69,760 job hunters who registered with the portal, 18 held doctorates, 1,165 had Masters degrees, 36,985 were Bachelor degree holders while 31,592 had diplomas.
As of last Friday, she added Universiti Teknologi Mara graduates topped the list from public universities with 12,768 applications.
This was followed by Universiti Utara Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia with 4,151 and 2,943 applicants respectively.
The report also noted that the majority majored in business administration, electric, electronics and telecommunications engineering, mechanical and mechatronics engineering, accounts and pure sciences.
“The number of job hunters, however, does not reflect fully on the unemployment rate among the graduates as some are already working but are hoping to get a better job or seeking to switch jobs,” she said.
