tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-600802170849928872.post8370778776895250359..comments2023-10-29T15:18:25.355+08:00Comments on de minimis: Structural unemployment (Part 2)de minimishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06478671079348612565noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-600802170849928872.post-75535054483987620312008-12-08T09:36:00.000+08:002008-12-08T09:36:00.000+08:00An important observation, de minimis. The focus is...An important observation, de minimis. The focus is still on hardware. In this case, the construction industry which they say affects 124 downline sub-sectors. But those sub-sectors are again hardware, most of which with low value-adds. Their intellectual content, digitized or otherwise, is not very high or valued in export markets.<BR/><BR/>So it appears the structural unemployment may be attributed to a policy disconnect. Pump-priming construction will only pump funds into few locals while employing many foreigners without any residual benefit to create new capabilities. The projects which can enhance other areas like precision manufacturing and computerized designing have not been forthcoming, or are at best tepid because the original assessments were only predicated on some p-r exercises, not real focus on how to overcome challenges from such blue-ocean greenfields. <BR/><BR/>Alternatively and concurrently, if we had for instance started a meistership program some thirty years back when the only other player in Asia doing so was Japan, we would probably be in close to the fourth quadrant instead of being in the second quadrant of human capital enhancement that we are currently in. <BR/><BR/>And that ties in to this: the policy disconnect also pertains to real support where it matters. If one wants potentially the best engineers in the country, places like the double-maths STPM classes of Chung Ling Penang and Sam Tet Ipoh should be supported to the hilt. They are the best feeders into the UM engineering faculties. One suspects many are pulled off by scholarships into Singapore instead. So there's a strong brain drain there. Why the vernacular schools have been neglected, you need to ask some people. <BR/><BR/>After so many years, they must be blinkered not to have seen their own handiwork. Or still in some state of self-denial.<BR/><BR/>Readings<BR/>http://tinyurl.com/5as86u<BR/>http://tinyurl.com/56zmoc<BR/>http://tinyurl.com/2acmlz<BR/>http://tinyurl.com/6pdv48<BR/>http://tinyurl.com/6py797<BR/>http://tinyurl.com/5vhw2w<BR/>http://tinyurl.com/5wsodh<BR/>http://tinyurl.com/5dyyq9<BR/>http://tinyurl.com/55hgcx<BR/>http://tinyurl.com/5o66kq<BR/>http://tinyurl.com/6c5vgh (& chap6)wallahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17580252352785040456noreply@blogger.com