KUALA LUMPUR: The Economic Action Council (EAC) is urging the government to look into developing high skilled talents for economic growth post-Covid-19.
Executive director Prof Tan Sri Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali (pix) said the shortage of high-skilled talents must be addressed as soon as possible to meet the needs of local industries.
“We have to recognise that part of the severity (of the problems) that we are facing now is not due to Covid-19, it was already there before Covid-19.
“If you are talking about productivity and growth, it is already an issue for all of us, that is, our inability to push for growth and inability to push for strong transformation towards more high-skilled jobs,” he said.
Noor Azlan added that the quality of the country’s growth has also become an issue.
“We have serious gaps in terms of who benefits from the growth,” he said at the Economic Summit 2021 held virtually today.
Noor Azlan was one of the panelists in the panel discussion entitled “Will Productivity and Growth Return After the Covid-19 Pandemic? How to Strengthen the Competitiveness of the Malaysian Economy in the New Normal”.
He said the way that growth is created is very important to ensure that the benefits are spread out evenly among the people as well as the region.
He also called for the government to review the entire education system, emphasising the need to have the ability to digitise the economy, as well as in embracing technology and automation.
“Covid-19 really tells us that the talent issue we are facing is serious. Not only does it cause a decline in productivity, but also in terms of the way we treat foreign workers in Malaysia, which is now becoming a pain for us in attending to the Covid-19 crisis,” he added.
The one-day virtual summit was organised by KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific.
-Bernama
