KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia hopes to promote the identification of potentials and prospects for green industries and jobs in Asean member states besides developing corresponding policies.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said this while referring to the Malaysia’s role as the chair of the association’s labour sector from 2018 to 2020.
“Going further, we look forward to working with Asean Dialogue partners such as China, the Republic of Korea and Japan to make a meaningful headway for the future of green jobs and green skills in Asean.
“I am confident that under the the stewardship of the Human Resources Minister (M. Kulasegaran) the Asean labour section will witness significant outcomes in promoting and facilitating the greening of industries as well as jobs and skills,” said Dr Mahathir in his speech text that was read by Kulasegaran at the opening of the 25th Asean Labour Ministers meeting.
Dr Mahathir further said that over the last two years, employment in the green economy across the bloc grew by 3.2 per cent compared to the overall economic expansion of five to six per cent.
“As a result nearly 1.4 million new green jobs were created based on the Development Bank of Singapore’s 2017 annual report.
“We have also seen strong growth in the renewable energy sector such as wind and solar power as well as production of equipment and installations for heating and energy savings that subsequently create jobs in the region.”
Dr Mahathir also said that the sectors that contributed to green jobs are agriculture, construction, forestry, renewable energy, transport and waste management.
He said that there was a need to raise awareness on green jobs as well as up-skilling, reskilling, grading and certification on related programmes.
Dr Mahathir further said that these were the aspects that Malaysia could exploit and could be beneficial to the Asean bloc at large.