Tougher now to bring talents home - TalentCorp

The country’s current economic and political climate is making it tougher for Malaysians overseas to return, said TalentCorp chief executive officer Johan Mahmood Merican.

“Malaysians abroad at this juncture would need more persuasion to return home given the current economic and political climate,” he said in an exclusive interview with Astro AWANI.

He also admitted that TalentCorp, which had been tasked to lure the talents home, is facing an uphill battle to convince many to return.

"Relative to the number of the tertiary educated Malaysians, about 170,000 in developing countries, that may appear a relatively low percentage. But on the glass half full, we have definitely achieved a lot more better progress on the Returning Expert Programme or REP in the past ten years. Previously we only had a 1,000," he said when asked to comment on whether TalentCorp has done enough to bring back Malaysians overseas.

"But, clearly a lot more needs to be done," he stressed.

Johan said the recent World Bank report is timely to re-direct their focus not only on providing incentives and raising the awareness about opportunities in Malaysia but also connect the professionals to a potential job offer.

“We have learned from the analysis conducted by the and taken heed of their recommendations that the REP is most effective in ensuring the return of Malaysians abroad when it was connected with an employment offer.

“We are now working closely with our partners to identify jobs available for professionals overseas. We know that the offer must be attractive enough for them to once again join Malaysia’s workforce,” said Johan.

stressed, the onus to return home is a personal choice and cannot be coerced by . He also said, like most middle-income nations, Malaysia also suffered from ‘brain-drain ’.

Moving forward, TalentCorp will push its efforts to reach out to talents who are on a fine line and leaning towards returning to their home country.

“As you might imagine, there is a spectrum of Malaysians from those who will never return to those who will come back anyway. Between those two spectrums are Malaysians in the margin that are interested to come back. We will focus on them and attract them to return to Malaysia, “said Johan.

Johan said key priority sectors like oil and gas, finance, electronics and healthcare has much growth potential.

“These areas will continue to grow. For example, Malaysia has become a hub for private .

“We need to leverage on talents who their expertise abroad to instead provide their skills here,” he said.

On a positive note, Johan said that the trend of young Malaysians living abroad will not see a sharp increase in the years to come.

He said, low employment rates in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries will force these groups to return home and build their career in Malaysia instead.

According to the World Bank report, Australia and UK were the top two countries that saw many Malaysians opting to build their professional career.