The allocation of a country’s resources is one of the most defining characteristics which would dictate its economic success or conversely the lack of success. It is imperative for those responsible in the management of public resources allocation to be aware of the country’s strategic direction and act in accordance with it.

Training workers should be consistent with the country’s priorities in terms of achieving its economic objectives – with public funds being invested in the right areas.

What is intriguing and should be opened for public debate is the rumored allocation of RM 20 million for hairstyling courses with the intent to create 2400 hairstylists in Malaysia.

Whilst hairstyling is a noble and important profession, we need to ask ourselves as to whether the supply side of hairstylists has fallen short in the country for such resources to be allocated to shore up the number of hairstylists. Perhaps the Ministry of Human Resources has the statistics and can share this with the public – if at all this is true.

It may just be the case that after the vision of making Malaysia the Islamic Banking hub of Asia and a leader on the Information Technology field, we would also like to woo tourists to Malaysia due to the number of our hairstylists.

The Minister of Human Resources should make a public declaration of the use of public funds and hold himself accountable to the public.

The National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) would like to suggest that a Council be formed to evaluate the disbursements of public funds for training of workers and that professionals be hired to do this job.

NUBE has also submitted a proposal to the Government to produce 10,000 skilled financial services professionals through an Executive Diploma in Banking and Finance for the lowest income group of the banking industry. The syllabus had been formulated by professionals and it would naturally be in line with the vision of Malaysia than the RM 20 million allocated by the Ministry of Human Resources to create a supply of internationally renowned hairstylists.

J Solomon

General Secretary