According to the latest World Economic Forum “Competitiveness Report 2014 – 2015”, Malaysia is steadily moving towards becoming a country with innovation driven economic growth or stage 3 of development (where Singapore, Australia and all the developed countries in the world are).
Innovation comes only with proper education system and high quality employment. This article confirms that Malaysia (third country as growth of demand in talent in the region) is definitely moving in the right direction.
Education wise, even though there is still much that can be done, Malaysia is far in front of most of the SEA neighbours (Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos) and keeps the distance through close relationships with international universities and attracting more campuses to be open here.
Way to go to maintain the right direction and speed up the completion of the development process that will bring Malaysia to becoming a developed country by the year 2020.
Malaysia Raises Profile as Preferred Regional Hub
BY MEENA LAKSHANA
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has raised its profile as a preferred regional hub, boasting one of the highest growth in job advertising volumes within the Asian region in the first quarter, according to international recruitment consultancy Robert Walters.
The consultancy firm said that according to the Robert Walters Asia Job Index, which tracks job advertising volumes for professional positions across leading job boards and national newspapers in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, job advertisements in Malaysia rose 15% in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15) from a year ago, making it the third highest in the region after Japan and China.
Japan and China recorded growth of 33% and 16% respectively, Robert Walters said in a statement yesterday. South Korea was closely behind Malaysia, recording a 14% growth, followed by Hong Kong’s 2% and Singapore’s 0.4%.
Robert Walters Malaysia managing director Sally Raj said Malaysia has enjoyed constant growth in the last five years, with significant progress seen predominantly within the shared services and the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors, thereby increasing job opportunities in supporting sectors.
“This has in turn created job opportunities for accounting, finance and information technology professionals,” she said. “Existing firms have even expanded their Malaysian hubs from regional to global operations.”
Raj said the current main challenges for businesses are largely external factors with the drop in oil prices affecting a number of companies in the industry, causing some companies to downsize their operations.
“In addition, many companies are adopting a wait-and-see approach with regards to the implementation of the goods and services tax and measuring its impact along their supply chain and business operations,” she added. However, Raj said market sentiments in Malaysia remain positive and employers are more committed to the long-term strategy of investing in talent.
The report said that job advertising in merchandising and purchasing grew a significant 75% from 2014, with the procurement function becoming increasingly critical as companies sought to achieve cost savings and economies of scale.
The report also stated that companies moved from generic job advertising towards specialist recruiters to attract professionals in areas of high demand. “As a result, a 2% annual dip was reported in job advertising numbers for legal and compliance roles,” the report read.
Healthy growth in FMCG firms led to a strong demand for branding and strategy professionals — pushing job advertising volumes for marketing roles up by 24% from 2014 while job advertising for positions within cloud computing and software development grew by 35% year-on-year, as firms continued to establish their IT shared services in Malaysia. Robert Walters is one of the world’s leading professional recruitment consultancies with offices in 24 countries and regions.
Source : The Edge Markets
