KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia is ahead of several regional countries in developing technology talent, but more needs to be done to prepare university graduates and technicians for high-skilled jobs, including in artificial intelligence (AI) and the semiconductor sector.
Khazanah Nasional Berhad managing director Datuk Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir said Malaysia had an advantage because it began building its technology ecosystem five decades ago with the entry of companies from the United States (US).
"This early advantage stemmed from Malaysia attracting US companies about 50 years ago, which helped develop a pool of Malaysian professionals with industry experience and expertise, including those now working abroad.
"This Malaysian diaspora possesses expertise in areas such as semiconductor design, placing the country in a strong position to undertake design work for the global market,” he told Bernama during a visit to the national news agency’s headquarters last Thursday (Aug 20).
He was received by Bernama chief executive officer Datin Paduka Nur-ul Afida Kamaludin, editor-in-chief Arul Rajoo Durar Raj and deputy editor-in-chief (News Service) Mohd Shukri Ishak.
Asked whether Malaysia was moving fast enough to produce AI-savvy talent and workers for high-skilled jobs, Amirul Feisal said the country was making good progress but could do more to accelerate the process.
Elaborating, he said the target of developing 60,000 engineers was substantial, requiring focused efforts to prepare university graduates and technicians to enter the semiconductor sector as quickly as possible.
"60,000 engineers is actually a large number. Khazanah is actually helping in a way, in the sense that we have programmes where we try to target it towards the semiconductor sector, whether it’s university graduates or perhaps some of the technicians, to really feed into the sector as fast as possible,” he said.
Amirul Feisal highlighted that Khazanah was also collaborating with industry players and their academies to accelerate the development of talent required by the sector.
Malaysia, he added, possessed a valuable pool of professionals who had developed expertise while working for multinational companies locally and abroad.
He said the country must create opportunities offering higher wages and more complex work while enabling Malaysians to remain connected to the global market.
"What we want to do is to create an opportunity to be able to increase the wages, increase complexity, and do stuff, and still be connected to the world,” he said.
Amirul Feisal said a conducive environment would encourage local professionals to participate in higher-value activities, strengthen domestic intellectual property development and attract talent to Malaysia.
He said efforts to create better jobs must balance three elements - economic complexity, high wages and broad-based benefits - while giving capable Malaysian companies greater opportunities to participate in the domestic economy.
"If we create a conducive environment to allow people to actually want to do business here, then you will have that crowding-in of people as well as talent here.
"When you have that, you have a bigger pie, more employment, broad-based benefits and better income,” he said. - BERNAMA