KUCHING: Sarawak should take care of its own human capital development programmes and set up the Sarawak Human Capital Development Fund, said the Sarawak Patriot Association (SPA).
SPA feels that by doing so, the state government would have direct control over the training of workers in the private and public sectors.
This would be in line with Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg’s big data initiative to champion the industries in particular and the economy in general.
“We have competent and qualified trainers in Sarawak who can help the industries in talent management in addition to developing a competent and skilful workforce,” said SPA president Datuk John Lau Pang Heng.
SPA feels that a competency-based skills analysis needs to be developed among the small and medium enterprises (SME) and “big players” so that training provided to the workforce would be able to address their staff’s competency gap.
“Addressing this gap will bridge the team and enable them to achieve the required productivity and efficiency,” said the SPA president.
According to Lau, SPA’s recent focus group discussion with graduates holding a minimum of a bachelor’s degree showed that there is a constant migration of skilled workers to Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor Bahru where the economy is seen to be more vibrant with better salaries.
“Our land size is as big as Malaya, but our economic contribution measured by gross domestic product (GDP) is less than 10 percent compared to the overall Malaysian GDP,” he said.
“Our Gini coefficient is 44.8 percent compared to Malaya’s average among the states there of 40.8 percent,” he said, referring to the measure of statistical dispersion which represents the income or wealth distribution of a nation’s residents.
“This is due to a high differential in economic and human capital development,” he said.
Relating this to rural development, Lau stated that the road length per land area in Sarawak is almost five times lower than that in Malaya, which has resulted in poor connectivity of the rural and urban areas by road.
He stated that at the federal level, there is the Human Resources Development Berhad (PSMB) which looks into the competency needs of the workforce.
“However, for the past years, any competency-based training provided by PSMB seldom reaches Sarawak as many SME and major players in Malaya have grabbed the opportunities.
“If Malaya, Sarawak and Sabah are equal partners, SPA requests that PSMB allocate a minimum of 33 percent of their training incentives to Sarawak,” Lau said.
