Mustapa rebuts claims that 50,000 jobs will be lost this year

Malaysia will intensify collaboration with other palm oil producing countries to consider more concerted efforts to voice its strong concern before the various committees under the WTO, Mustapa said.

KUALA LUMPUR: Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said that the total number of retrenchments may not be as high as claimed by some quarters.
 
He said that while it was true that technology and industrial structure has resulted in displacements, it was incorrect for some quarters to allege that 50,000 workers would be retrenched primarily due to the rising cost of doing business.
 
“While there will be some retrenchments, in our view most of those retrenched workers will be reemployed by new and expanding businesses and the total number of retrenchments this year may not be as high as claimed,” he said in a statement after a dialogue session with 21 members of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM).
 
The dialogue held on Monday was to discuss on the cost of doing business and employment opportunities in Malaysia.
 
Mustapa said that most of those retrenched has been rehired by new and existing companies.
 
“It is important to note that as at third quarter 2017, the total employed persons have increased to 14.48 million from 14.42 million in the previous quarter,” he said.
 
In the three-year period between 2014 and 2016, new manufacturing projects implemented have created over 153,000 jobs. In additional another 32,700 jobs will be created from investments secured in the period from January to September 2017.