PETALING JAYA: The Pakatan Harapan youth wings today disclosed an economic model which aims to provide one million job opportunities for the youth, while reducing the number of foreign workers in the country, all within five years.
Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) Youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said the economic model, which will be implemented should the Pakatan Harapan coalition win in the next general election, is based on the human economy that gives priority in activities that develop the people’s wellbeing and moulded based on the solidarity of all layers of the community.
“Should we manage to take over, we aim to improve the employment rate of the youth as well as to provide solution on issues concerning unmatched careers skills based on qualifications and the overall wellbeing of the labour force.
“We also aim to limit the number of foreign workers in the country to 2.5 million people and to reduce the number of foreign workers in the professional fields.
“We believe that the existence of foreign workers in the country should be complementary to the local work force,” he said.
Syed Saddiq was speaking to reporters at a press conference at the PPBM headquarters here today.
He added that based on Bank Negara Malaysia 2016 report which was published on March 23 this year, the unemployment rate among the youth in the country have reached 10.7 per cent in 2015 which is three times higher compared to the general unemployment rate (3.1 per cent).
“The unemployment rate among the youth with tertiary qualification is about 15.3 per cent, while those without tertiary qualification stands at about 9.8 per cent.
“In terms of earnings, about 54 per cent of youth make only less than RM2,000 per month, which has been the same since 2007,” he said.
Syed Saddiq also expressed his concern over the large number of foreign workers in the country, stating that based on data by the Statistics Department, the number of foreign workers have increase to 3.3 million in 2016 from 2.1 million in 2014.
“The number of foreign workers in the country has increased by 1.2 million within two years,” he said.
He claimed that by now, the number of unregistered foreign workers may have peaked to about eight million people, which is larger than the Chinese community in the country.
Also present at the press conference were DAP Socialist Youth international secretary Howard Lee Chuan How, Amanah Negara Youth deputy chief Faiz Fadzil, DAP Youth leader Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, Keadilan youth vice-chief Sangetha Jayakumar and DAP assistant national secretary Young Shefura Othman.
Keywords: Pakatan Harapan, PPBM Youth, Syed Saddiq, youth, foreign workers, GE, unemployment rate, employment rate, skills mismatch