Wednesday, February 10, 2010

August 20, 2008 19:38 PM

Government To Reduce Unemployment To Allay Opposition Charges

SHAH ALAM, Aug 20 (Bernama) -- Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam Wednesday said his ministry was always striving to reduce unemployment to ensure that the Opposition's claim that 800,000 people will be out work next year do not materialise.

"This may be their hope but we will not let that happen," he said went asked to comment on the Opposition's claims.

Dr Subramaniam said this after officiating the silver jubilee celebrations for the Centre for Instructor and Advanced Skill Training (CIAST) at Section 19 here.

He said he had directed officers in the Manpower Department to monitor industries over continuous late payment of salaries, shortage of staff and overtime issues.

In the case of the closure of toys manufacturer Nikko Toys, he said his ministry had held an employment carnival for its workers to find work.

As a result of the carnival 400 of the manufacturer's 900 workers had found work.

He said from January till June this year a total of 43,000 jobs had been created due to local and foreign investments.

In his speech, Dr Subramaniam said since being established in 1983 CIAST had produced 40,000 trained workers in 18 industrial fields.

CIAST was set up with financial aid from the Japanese government under the ASEAN human resources development programme.

Japanese ambassador to Malaysia Masahiko Horie who also attended the function said CIAST was a good example of long term technical cooperation between Malaysia and Japan.

The role of CIAST was not only to train Malaysians but also workers from neighbouring countries like Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

-- BERNAMA

We provide (subscription-based) 
news coverage in our Newswire service.