Reimagining Malaysia Part 9: Thriving in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

“In the new world, it is not the big fish which eats the small fish, it’s the fast fish which eats the slow fish.”  

- Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum-

The world that we are living in is changing so fast. General Electric’s Discussion Paper in 2014, “The Future of Work”, estimated that 65 percent of children entering primary education today will end up in new job types that don’t exist today[1]. McLeod, Scott and Karl Fisch estimated that with the current rate of technological change, nearly 50 percent of subject knowledge acquired during the first year of a four-year technical degree could become outdated by the third year of study[2].

Reimagining Malaysia Part 8: Five Ways to Create an Economy that Works for the Youths

In Part 7 of this series, I discussed how Malaysia’s economy structure is failing our youths, resulting in the double whammy of youth unemployment and underemployment. We need to rethink and restructure the economy so to create more jobs for the youths, not only jobs, but good jobs – jobs that give them decent incomes, meet their aspirations and develop them to their full potentials.

Here are the five things the government should do to create an economy that works better for Malaysian youths.