PUTRAJAYA: Human Resources Minister Datuk Richard Riot is confident that Malaysia will achieve the targeted 35 per cent skilled workforce by 2020.
With only three years to the set target, he said the country is on the right track in producing the skilled workers in line with country's vision to achieve a high-income nation status.
"In 2015, we raised it to 28 per cent and in 2016, the number increased to 31 per cent.
"With the increase, I'm very positive that our target can be achieved," he told reporters today.
It was reported that the country's workforce currently stand at 14.8 million.
Riot was met at the launching 'Labour Market Information Data Warehouse (LMIDW)' project and a seminar on Labour Market: Trend and Challenges at Mariott Hotel here.
He said the data warehouse will be able to store a comprehensive data and information of the country's local workforce.
"This will be able to maintain or reduce the country's unemployment rate at 3.5 per cent.
"The data will also reduce dependency on foreign workforce and issues of job mismatch," he added.
He noted that the number of foreign workers in the country has dropped to 1.8 million people this year, compared to 2.1 million last year.
The LMIDW will be a centralised database towards the establishment of a fully integrated, well-functioned labour market information and analysis system, Riot added.