Job link to state projects

1/13/2010 — New Straits Times
Human resource development programmes in the state will be linked with economic development projects to ensure greater compatibility between manpower skills and the required competencies in the job market.
Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said said the strategy was employed to combat the lack of jobs during the current global economic downturn and provide continous supply of skilled manpower for the relevant industries.
“We were able to create 500 jobs for Information Technology (IT) graduates under the e-book programme for the primary school students.
“Likewise, our agricultural and tourism projects will create jobs for youths trained in the related fields.”
He said the state government was not worried about people from Terengganu seeking jobs elsewhere provided more skilled manpower could be trained.
“In the past we were worried about the brain-drain but now we would feel proud when people from Terengganu secured professional positions overseas as it showed that we could produce competent manpower.”
Ahmad was speaking after launching the East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC) Human Resource Development Programme for the state at the Primula Beach Resort here yesterday.
He said the state government was grateful for the ECERDC help in getting job placements in companies that took part in its KerJaya Human Resource Development Programme.
“So far 304 graduates had registered with the Graduates Placement Programme (GPP).
“After a two-year working stint in the selected companies, they have a high chance of being absorbed into the companies’ permanent workforce.”
He said beside GPP, KerJaya also have Employee Placement Programme (EPP) for retrenched workers and the Skills Training Programme (STP) for school leavers and the unemployed to be trained in 74 selected training institutions.
Ahmad said six high-impact economic projects will commence under ECER this year.
“The Besut-Setiu agricultural project and the Teluk Bidara tourism project are the most prominent ones involving job creation for the poor and investments in the hotel sector.”
He said at least one investor is committed to building a hotel in Teluk Bidara while 3,000 participants will benefit from the agricultural project in Besut and Setiu.
Meanwhile, Ahmad said Terengganu will have the biggest elephant enclosure in the country soon as surveying work has commenced on a project to fence off 100ha of the elephant sanctuary area in the state.
Visitors will be able to observe free-ranging elephants within the enclosure which has an electric fence to keep the animals from straying into other parts of the jungle or to the nearby human settlements.
The project is part of state government measures to add to Terengganu’s tourism products basket.
He said the electric fencing would not have a negative impact on the environment.
“We are not going to cut down the trees as the fencing will be built around them.
“Furthermore, the elephants will not be harmed as the electric shock delivered by the fence will only stop them from going outside the enclosure, not to hurt or kill them.”
State Wildlife Department director Jamalun Nasir Ibrahim said the project could be undertaken in either Sungai Ketiar or Sungai Deka area within the Kenyir Lake forest reserves.