Labour market reforms are crucial to address job mismatches that contribute to graduate underemployment, unemployment and slow wage growth as well as over-dependence on foreign labour, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Mahathir said reforming the labour market was one of the four priority areas highlighted during the Mid-Term Review of the 11th Malaysia Plan which was presented last year. In this aspect, he said TalentCorp had been steadily supporting Malaysia's aspiration to achieve a 59 percent female labour force participation rate by 2020 through initiatives like the Career Comeback Programme which received acclaim at the 2016 Global Summit of Women in Warsaw, Poland.
For the priority area of fostering stronger industry-academia linkages, two strategies were outlined, namely to develop industry-relevant skills, and to promote contributions of society and industry, he said.