Lure of mega projects for M’sians working in Singapore

Ismail (front row, right) and Johor Unity and Human Resources Committee chairman R. Vidyananthan (second from right) talking to a trader at the Kembara Kerjaya Trainride 2.0 (Southern Zone) in Kluang.

KLUANG: The government hopes mega projects in the country will help lure some of the 300,000 Malaysians working in Singapore.

Most of these workers are earning between RM3,000 (S$1,000) and RM6,000 (S$2,000) per month.

Among the projects identified include the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex in Johor.

Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Abd Muttalib said a high level committee was studying the matter and would make recommendations to the Cabinet.

“We want to find a win-win situation as we understand about the high currency exchange but the cost of living there (Singapore) is high too,” he added.

He was speaking at the launch of a career carnival called Kembara Kerjaya Trainride 2.0 (Southern Zone) here.

Ismail added that workers who wanted to earn more could opt for upskilling or reskilling programmes.

He also urged job seekers not to be choosy but to take up the available jobs to gain experience.

Based on the JobsMalaysia portal, there were at least 56,336 active job seekers in 2017.

“That is why we are having more of such career carnivals to match the workers with employers,” he said, adding that the ministry hoped to reduce the country’s unemployment rate to 3.2% by 2020.

Presently the unemployment rate was 3.4%.

Meanwhile, on the career carnival, there will be a total of 12 locations around Negri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak offering 14,500 vacancies involving 270 employers.

In Johor alone there are about 2,000 jobs involving 40 employers.