Budget 2020 incentives to create 350k jobs, says minister

The government is confident that incentives announced under Budget 2020 will be able to create 350,000 jobs over five years, according to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Speaking to reporters in Parliament, Lim said the mechanism to implement the incentives for unemployed graduates, non-graduates, and prospective employers will be announced by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) in due course.

Under the Budget 2020 Graduates@Work scheme, those who find work after being unemployed for more than 12 months will receive a monthly incentive of RM500 for two years, while the employer will receive RM300 for the same duration.

"We understand that employers cannot pay so high, but employees will not accept jobs if the pay is too low, so we want to incentivise and provide an opportunity for unemployed graduates and non-graduates to motivate them to work," he said.

"We think that this solution will help to altogether create 350,000 jobs in five years.

"To make this happen we also realise there is a limitation to what the government can do," he further said.

"We are not experts in these areas.

"That's why we are entrusting EPF with (the task of) setting out the mechanisms and implementing them," said Lim who earlier led a Budget 2020 briefing for all Harapan elected representatives.

He noted that the overall idea was to provide incentives for both graduates and non-graduates to seek employment, as well as for prospective employers to hire them.

Meanwhile, Lim also clarified that companies who wish to acquire Plus Malaysia must fulfil two conditions before they can proceed.

He said the first condition is to ensure that there is a minimum average reduction of 18 percent in the present toll charges, while the second is to make sure that it must not increase the government's debt burden and debt servicing charges.

This follows his announcement yesterday that Plus highway users can expect to pay an average of 18 percent less for tolls starting next year. - Mkini