FMM In The News: FREE MALAYSIA TODAY, PETALING JAYA, May 24, 2023 - The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) has called on the government to end duplicate upskilling, reskilling and job placement initiatives.
It said these could be streamlined under the Human Resource Development Corporation (HRD Corp).
FMM president Soh Thian Lai said there is duplication in programmes managed by HRD Corp and the Social Security Organisation (Socso), through its Employment Insurance System (EIS).
He said these two organisations were managed by the human resources ministry.
“All reskilling and upskilling programmes should come under a single body, such as HRD Corp,” he said in a statement.
He said HRD Corp already had an established framework for approving training courses and providers, plus an allowable cost matrix.
Soh said that having a single established framework managed by one body would reduce market confusion and minimise the risk of profiteering by unscrupulous training providers.
He suggested that job placement initiatives should ideally be centralised under the EIS, as managing such initiatives incurs additional costs in running placement centres.
Soh was reacting to comments by Apurva Sanghi, the World Bank’s lead economist for Malaysia, who recently highlighted the fragmentation of government programmes, saying that life needs to be made simple for small investors, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as the common people.
Apurva said the current system “hurts the public purse”, perpetuates inequality and hurts the common people.
Soh also said significant time and resources could be saved if SMEs only had to interact with a single agency or a “centre co-ordinating agency (CCA)” like SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp).
He said SMEs often have to submit the same company profile, financial reports and various certificates to multiple government agencies.
Soh proposed the establishment of a centralised data repository for SMEs to lodge all their particulars, thereby eliminating the need for repetitive form submissions for different programmes and grant applications.