KUALA LUMPUR (March 6): Malaysians should not be worried for the loss of labour-intensive jobs as the shift towards more high-skilled ones is normal for a country embracing the Industrial Revolution 4.0, said International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.

He said the dynamics of the workforce will inevitably change but there is no cause for concern as new jobs will be created.

"As you lose some jobs, you create new job opportunities. So the structure of work will change. This is happening in many developed countries where the services sector becomes more important," he told a press conference after the launch of the Malaysia Investment Performance Report 2017 today.

Mustapa said even the services sector in Malaysia is going through a transformation as the government is emphasising on the shift towards an industry that is knowledge-intensive and innovation-focused.

"As a country, we are not worried about that. This is part of any transition that some jobs will be wiped out almost totally but new ones will be created," he added.

In the manufacturing sector, Mustapa said most of the retrenchments seen during the year were mostly due to restructuring of companies, where labour intensive jobs were moved to other countries in the region.

"Malaysia is not as competitive when it comes to wages; of course we cannot compete with some countries in the region. So some of those companies have shifted their operations because most of them are labour intensive activities," he said.

Earlier, Malaysian Investment Development Authority revealed that a total of 56,420 job opportunities were created from approved investments in 2017.

Of the total jobs opportunities created, 25.1% (14,155) were in managerial, technical, or supervisory roles — an increase of 21% from 2016 — while 17.5% (9,870) were positions for skilled workers.

The electronics and electrical industry generated the highest amount of employment opportunities with 10,593 jobs followed by transport equipment (9,112 jobs) and machinery and equipment (6,078 jobs).

The employment rate for approved investments in 2017 was at 139,523 compared with 154,491 in 2016 — a decrease of 9.68% — in line with the decline in total approved investments of RM197.1 billion for 2017 from RM212.9 billion in 2016.

The retrenchment trends for 2017 saw 30,414 local workers being let go, a 6.57% decline from 32,552 in 2016, while 3,040 foreign workers were retrenched in 2017, down 40.93% from 5,147 in 2016.