The Ministry of Human Resources is drafting measures to tackle the brain drain phenomenon, which at 5.5% is much higher than the global average of 3.3%.
Brain drain is the migration of professionals to foreign countries.
According to a report by Bernama, Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar shared that more than a million Malaysians would rather work in Singapore.
“A total of 1.86 million Malaysians live abroad, and out of that, 1.13 million stay in Singapore,” he said.
He also brought up the United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs’s (UNDESA’s) discovery that the main destinations for the Malaysian diaspora include Singapore, Bangladesh, Australia, United Kingdom, the United States and Brunei.
With that, Sivakumar explained that it is a long-term task to attract Malaysians back to our own country.
“There are 2 things, 1, how are you going to pull back people who left to work abroad? What’s the best way to offer certain attractive incentives to get them back?”
Second, how do we ensure there are no attractive factors (abroad) or alternatively, pushing factors in the local industry causing them to leave? This is a heavy burden (for my ministry and TalentCorp), we’re doing what we can (to solve) this issue the best way possible,” he ensured.
What do you think are ways to not only prevent Malaysians from leaving to work in foreign countries and to bring Malaysians back to work here?
Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
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