| Changing Youths Mindset A Challenge, Sabah Assembly Told |
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KOTA KINABALU, Nov 17 (Bernama) -- The Sabah government is "trying hard" to change the mindset and attitude of local youths so that they will not shy away from jobs in sectors now monopolised by foreign workers, the state assembly was told Tuesday.
Resource Development and Information Technology Minister Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai said this was a challenge the state government had to overcome because many youths did not want to work in sectors such as construction and plantation.
"It is for this reason that we are depending greatly on foreign workers. We have to change the local people's mindset and attitude. The government is trying hard to rectify this," he said when replying to a supplementary question, from Datuk Zakaria Mohd Edris (BN-Gum Gum).
Earlier, assistant minister Datuk Jainab Ahmad, when replying to the original question from Zakaria, said the ministry was conducting on-the-job training in the plantation and hotel sectors.
He said that between 1996 and September this year, 3,944 local youths had completed on-the-job training in the plantation sector and that between 1991 and September this year, 2,942 youths completed on-the-job training in the hotel sector.
Meanwhile, Assistant Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Datuk Musbah Jamli said it was government policy to maintain as reserves dead rivers as they could serve as catchment ponds during floods.
He was replying to a question from Johnny Goh (BN-Inanam) who had wanted to know whether individuals could apply to develop dead rivers.
Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Yahya Hussin, when replying to a supplementary question from Goh, said it would not be wrong for people in a locality to use dead rivers to breed ducks, for example, but they should not fill up the rivers.
-- BERNAMA
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