Comment by Mitul Lakhani, Chief Executive Officer, iMoney Group:
The expansionary measures set out in National Budget 2020 clearly outline the government’s strategy on elevating the rakyat’s employability and financial well-being via initiatives focusing on continued investment in education, encouraging job creation and providing incentives for training, development and upskilling of the current Malaysian workforce.
We commend the government for the allocation of RM20 million in grants and RM20 million from the Human Resource Development Grant to encourage working adults to sit for professional certification exams in IR4.0-related courses. This move is also bolstered by the expansion of withdrawal scope for EPF which includes members’ parents and spouse for accredited programmes in line with IR4.0. These initiatives will provide a larger local talent pool for digital SMEs such as iMoney to recruit from and continue to grow across the region.
Furthermore, adequately skilled graduates will find it easier to secure higher-value jobs, allowing them to be gainfully employed and earn higher incomes thereby being able to narrow the current gap between their income and living expenses, which based on the recent iMoney Monthly Budget Survey was one of the key challenges Malaysians are facing.
The introduction of Digital Social Responsibility (DSR) will also further enable the private sector to work in tandem with the government to improve the necessary digital skills of the future workforce and further contribute to upskilling that meets industry needs.
We also welcome the government’s Malaysians@Work initiatives that will assist unemployed graduates and women in gaining the necessary skill sets and capabilities with on-the-job training. This will encourage the building of human capital from those currently unemployed to be able to contribute productively to the economy.
iMoney is confident that with the rakyat-centric initiatives announced in Budget 2020, Malaysia continues to be on the right track towards becoming a highly skilled, high-income nation and achieve its Shared Prosperity Vision 2030.