Malaysian professionals at overseas outlook 2009
Did you ever wonder how many Malaysians are working overseas now? According to the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF), there are now about 785,000 people from Malaysia working overseas.
An estimated two out of every three Malaysians who work abroad are likely to be professionals. From the total of Malaysian professionals abroad, 44 per cent are in Singapore and 28 per cent in other parts of Asia. The rest work in other parts of the world.
A government policy was launched in 2000 with the aim of wooing them back, with offers of tax and duties exemptions, targeting doctors, engineers and IT executives. It has seen only 770 applicants approved since then, or an average of 85 each year.
In the recent announcement for the 2010 Budget, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said new incentives will be offered to attract foreign talent. One of these makes it easier for skilled expatriates to apply for permanent resident status. Visas will also be granted automatically to working and dependent expatriate family members within 14 days.
However, critics were skeptical of the success as things often boil down to salaries and expectations.
Shamsuddin Bardan, the executive director of MEF, which is an umbrella trade body for 4,000 private-sector employers, pointed out that it all boiled down to salaries.
He gave an example: A senior engineer working in the US could make about RM30,000 a month, compared to about RM20,000 in Malaysia. The pasture was greener elsewhere, hence the exodus.
The hypothesis had been that Malaysian professionals ventured overseas due to higher pay beyond Malaysia, and equal opportunity offered to the best talents irrespective of race and religion.
Meanwhile, the standard of the command of English among new entrants in the job market had been waning, largely due to the country’s education system that produced umemployable graduates.
