Malaysia wants the Jimmy Choos to come home
Come home – that is message the Government wants to send out to those who have ventured abroad and made names for themselves internationally in designing, modelling, singing and acting.
Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn said there were many such Malaysians.
“There are many with the experience in Broadway. We have Malaysians who are top models in New York and London. We have people with the experience in fashion designing,” he said.
He noted that these people were experts in their fields and that the country would benefit by having them back.
“We should attract them back because they bring a good name to Malaysia,” he said yesterday at the 11th Civil Service Conference.
Dr Fong said that under a programme to bring experts back to the country, the word “expert” had been defined a little too rigidly in the past to mean professionals and those with tertiary educational qualifications, like scientists, doctors, accountants and bankers.
“But we want to attract not only the scientists and medical experts. If we want to attract people like (internationally-acclaimed shoe designer Datuk) Jimmy Choo, how do we do it?” he added.
Hence the Government had decided to be more flexible and would try to attract these talented people to come back, he said.
“They are innovators, the benchmarkers. They are the ones who inspire others,” he noted.
Dr Fong said Malaysia had hoped to attract thousands of experts back to the country when it introduced the programme in 2001 but only 300 experts had came back so far, mostly those in medicine and financial services.
He said the poor response was due to the difference between salaries offered here and overseas.
“We can only offer incentives but the major change that we want to put in place is beyond us. The salary level is dependent on the employers,” he added.
Dr Fong also noted that a number of electronics firms that had relocated operations to China were slowly coming back to Malaysia because it had the infrastructure for best practices in the sector.
“We want this to be transmitted to all other sectors,” he said.
Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn said there were many such Malaysians.
“There are many with the experience in Broadway. We have Malaysians who are top models in New York and London. We have people with the experience in fashion designing,” he said.
He noted that these people were experts in their fields and that the country would benefit by having them back.
“We should attract them back because they bring a good name to Malaysia,” he said yesterday at the 11th Civil Service Conference.
Dr Fong said that under a programme to bring experts back to the country, the word “expert” had been defined a little too rigidly in the past to mean professionals and those with tertiary educational qualifications, like scientists, doctors, accountants and bankers.
“But we want to attract not only the scientists and medical experts. If we want to attract people like (internationally-acclaimed shoe designer Datuk) Jimmy Choo, how do we do it?” he added.
Hence the Government had decided to be more flexible and would try to attract these talented people to come back, he said.
“They are innovators, the benchmarkers. They are the ones who inspire others,” he noted.
Dr Fong said Malaysia had hoped to attract thousands of experts back to the country when it introduced the programme in 2001 but only 300 experts had came back so far, mostly those in medicine and financial services.
He said the poor response was due to the difference between salaries offered here and overseas.
“We can only offer incentives but the major change that we want to put in place is beyond us. The salary level is dependent on the employers,” he added.
Dr Fong also noted that a number of electronics firms that had relocated operations to China were slowly coming back to Malaysia because it had the infrastructure for best practices in the sector.
“We want this to be transmitted to all other sectors,” he said.
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