Najib: Talent Corp will lure Malaysians home next year

The Star

Najib: Talent Corp will lure Malaysians home next year

Tuesday October 5, 2010

By MERGAWATI ZULFAKAR newsdesk@thestar.com.my

BRUSSELS: The Talent Corporation, which has been tasked with encouraging Malaysian professionals based overseas to return home, will begin operations in January.

When announcing this, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the Government was in the midst of hiring key personnel for the corporation to headhunt Malaysians to return and work in the country.

“We are creating more exciting things to attract Malaysians and foreigners to come and play a part in our next level of growth. If we can create more opportunities, some of you might want to come back and those married to Belgians can bring (your) spouses with you; they will be allowed to work.

Open house: Najib and Rosmah welcoming guests to their Hari Raya function in Brussels on Sunday. — Bernama

“Our policy is to be more open because a society that is open will thrive in the 21st century. A society that is closed will not attract the best brains, you will attract mediocre people and the good ones would have left the country and we will be a lot poorer as a result,” the Prime Minister said in his address to about 200 Malaysians based in Belgium and Luxembourg during a Hari Raya gathering he hosted with his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor here on Sunday night.

Najib, who is in Brussels to attend the Asia-Europe Summit, had announced the setting up of the corporation when tabling the 10th Malaysia Plan in Kuala Lumpur.

He said the corporation, to be placed under the Prime Minister’s Department, would identify shortages in key sectors, attract and retain the necessary skilled human capital, and provide an integrated skilled human capital blueprint.

Separately, Bernama reported that Malaysian Institute of Architects president Boon Chee Wee said: “This is a great initiative. We do have a shortage of architects, and the effect is that local firms are not able to expand their capability and capacity and thus face problems in competing with international architects.”

The Malaysian Medical Association president, Dr David K.L. Quek, said steps should also be taken to ensure that those returning had good career paths so that they would remain in the country.