KLUANG: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has called on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to work with the Social Security Organisation (Socso) and the Human Resources Development Bhd (HRD Corp) to organize more career carnivals aimed at boosting employment opportunities for young people.
He said such collaboration would enable effective job matching, ensuring that the skills of young people are aligned with the needs of local companies, ultimately benefiting the economy of the respective states.
"In Johor there is a special economic zone and the federal government, as well as the state government, have established cooperation involving TalentCorp so that there is a match between the skills required by the employer and and the workers in this special zone area.
"We don't want Malaysia to be associated only with general workers, we aim to be a developed country and one of the states that welcomes the most foreign investment and domestic direct investment is Johor," he said.
The deputy prime minister said this when opening the Gegar Jejak Kerjaya MyFutureJobs with the Women's and Family Affairs Organization (Hawa Malaysia) at Bazaar Uptown Kluang here today.
The programme was also attended by Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Mohamad and Hawa Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
Meanwhile, Zahid, also the Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, emphasised that the BN candidate for the Mahkota state by-election, Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah, has never been linked to any criminal case nor has he been charged in court.
This, he said, was confirmed by Johor police chief Datuk M. Kumar this morning.
"Don't pay attention to those who are frustrated...whose candidate may not be as good as Syed Hussien. So, they resort to saying all sorts of negative things about Syed Hussien.
"Let's all pray for our candidate's victory," he said.
Yesterday, Zahid refuted the opposition's claims that Syed Hussien has a criminal record, saying that the allegations are untrue.
He said that such claims indicate the opposition has run out of issues due to the lack of response to their candidate.
Zahid said that from reports he read, Syed Hussien was in his 20s when he tried to protect a blind man who was harassed and beaten by a group of men.
Polling for the Mahkota state by-election is tomorrow. It involved a straight fight between Syed Hussien and Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Mohamad Haizan Jaafar.
The by-election was called following the death of its incumbent Datuk Sharifah Azizah Syed Zain, 63, last Aug 2.