Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/73199
Cover Story The New Malaysian Talent Market How one emerging economy is charting an ambitious workforce course. By Johan Mahmood Merican Malaysia has adopted an agenda, known as Vision 2020, which is intended to transform the nation to a developed, high-income economy by the end of this decade. Prime Minister Najib Razak has articulated a comprehensive plan, encapsulating a transformation plan for government and the economy. It is not just a high-level agenda. The Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) sets out details in terms of 12 national key economic sectors (NKEAs), and contemplates immediate implementation through 150 investment initiatives or entry point projects (EPP). The ETP, launched only two years ago, is already showing tangible and strong progress in catalysing investments. The ETP, however, cannot succeed on financial capital or investments alone. Talent is a key ingredient. Malaysia cannot be on the road to a knowledge-intensive and innovation-led economy without talent to drive it. As the Prime Minister has said, "Malaysia has talent, indeed we have global talent. The only problem is that the world knows it, and, therefore, Malaysia has to compete for its own talent." We can ill afford to lose our talent. A country lacking talent would have industries impeded from investing and growing. This, in turn, would dampen job opportunities, which could then result in an exodus of talent, triggering a vicious cycle of lessening talent and a weakenening economy. Global talent encompasses the Malaysian diaspora and foreign talent. The focus will be towards those who can effectively complement existing Malaysian talent and address critical skill gaps. Raise career awareness Strategic Thrust 1: Op1mise Malaysian Talent Malaysian homegrown talent will be TalentCorp's priority school-‐to-‐work transi1on Enhance Hence, in conjunction with catalysing investments through the ETP, talent initiatives will be implemented to enhance talent availability towards igniting a virtuous cycle of more investments and greater talent inflow. To drive interventions that will meet the talent needs of the ETP, the government established Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp) in January 2011. TalentCorp is acting as a focal point, which requires close collaboration with the public and private sectors to identify talent issues, escalate those issues to the relevant stakeholders, and develop targeted interventions to address them. Advocating policies. TalentCorp plays a bridging role between private sector and the relevant public sector agency by understanding the issues faced by the private sector and developing policy solutions. Build pla6orms to op1mise talent Public-private collaboration. TalentCorp focuses on building collaborations to address talent issues, through such efforts as joint participation in an outreach programme or through joint funding of a talent development initiative. SPRING 2012 | www.hroglobal.com [9]