Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak wants youths in the country to take advantage of the greater employment opportunities created through Budget 2018.
He said the creation of more employment opportunities was among the main focuses of the 2018 budget which aimed at enabling the people, especially youths, to fully benefit from the country’s economic growth.
According to the prime minister, Malaysia’s unemployment rate of 3.3 percent recorded in 2017 was the lowest in the region and that the government had targeted to create 3.3 million jobs by the year 2020.
“Right now, we have reached 69 percent of the target and created 2.26 million job opportunities.
“My advice to the young people is to be bold and proactive in leaving your comfort zone. Take full advantage of the opportunities made available for you,” he said in his latest blog entry at www.najibrazak.com today.
The prime minister said in the 2018 budget tabled last October, the government had allocated a sum of RM1 billion for various projects in the five main Economic Corridors, such as the South Perak region development project, Bukit Kayu Hitam Duty-Free Zone; construction of port and industrial park in Tok Bali, Kelantan and access road to Baleh Dam in Sarawak, which would definitely create many job opportunities in various sectors.
Apart from that, he said a sum of RM4.9 billion had also been set aside to enable more youth to be trained with technical and vocational skills in a bid to produce more highly- and semi-skilled workers.
There are also many other opportunities for youths and fresh graduates to venture into small- and medium-scale business through government’s financial support, grants and loans, he said.
“This is in line with the government’s aspiration to not only turn the youths and fresh graduates into workers, but also into job creators by venturing into entrepreneurship,” he explained, adding that the implementation of marketability programmes, such as the 1Malaysia Training Scheme, was also part of the government’s efforts to ensure job opportunities for university graduates.
- Bernama
