00:00Eddie, I think Eddie is here for a round of applause as well.
00:04I've always said, my dear friends, that ASEAN needs to have a more collaborative approach towards the 21st century economy.
00:10We are talking about AI, digitalisation, the green agenda.
00:15Competition between friends and neighbours may not be zero-sum.
00:19Otherwise, we will be all racing to the bottom, where competition is to see who is cheaper in ASEAN.
00:25No, I believe we can partner together to increase the value of our respective national economy,
00:31tackle global problems together, build local competency and drive green growth in this region.
00:36And this was indeed the spirit of Kuala Lumpur 2045,
00:40when our leaders met about three months ago here in Kuala Lumpur to renew the ASEAN commitment.
00:46Commitment not only to work together, but also to work together closely and deeply,
00:52as well as, for the long term, looking at least into 20 years in the future.
00:58We should leverage on our core competencies, for example, to develop an ASEAN EV industry,
01:03rather than allowing investors to push us to a competition to the bottom,
01:09to throw price and to see who is the cheapest.
01:12And we have done it, my dear friends.
01:14With the ASEAN standards for grid financing, the ASEAN power grid,
01:18ASEAN digital economy framework agreement, etc.
01:20And we have done it more recently, with a real-time cross-border payment via the ASEAN e-payment integration.
01:27There is no stopping us from doing the same, collaborating in our EV industry,
01:33in our cheap sectors, for our green economy and even for our skills training sector.
01:39What can we do vis-à-vis skills training at Tibet?
01:42First, ASEAN should be a platform to share our experiences in skills training.
01:49The different stages of our industrialization and the different sectors of which each of us has our respective competitive advantages
01:57will enable us to complement one another.
02:00Take, for example, Malaysia.
02:01We have more than half a century of experience when it comes to high-tech semiconductor manufacturing.
02:08Today, we are 7% of global semiconductor trade and 13% of global semiconductor back-end manufacturing.
02:15As our economy catches up to an even higher growth and higher value model,
02:20we aspire to be a world-class skills training center to ensure our human capital is ready to embrace a higher value job market.
02:29The Malaysian unique national experience will surely be useful to fellow member states who are perhaps exploring a similar path.
02:37And Malaysia too can benefit from our neighbors.
02:40Secondly, to fully realize the potential of ASEAN, we must move towards a long-overdue, higher synergy in the common certification framework.
02:50If skills are the currency of Industrial Revolution 4.0, IR 4.0,
02:56then in order for a greater advancement of the ASEAN skills market, we must work hard towards mutual recognition.
03:03Perhaps it is time for an ASEAN skills clearinghouse, a regional standard authority to enable trans-border recognition of national skills standard.
03:13The low-hanging fruit, because the Deputy Prime Minister reminded me, is to strengthen the existing ASEAN-Tibet Council to do more.
03:21Here in Malaysia, we are in the process of amending our skills development legislation to recognize higher T-Bet qualifications
03:29beyond the current ceiling of an advanced diploma in T-Bet.
03:33This will include consultant and expert level of skills certification.
03:38And this certification will definitely fulfill any stringent regional or even global standards.
03:44There is no reason why these experts here in Malaysia cannot move freely to contribute their knowledge and skills within the region.
03:53Thirdly, we must put our money where our mouth is to invest in skills education.
03:58The Malaysian government spends about 10 billion ringgit, you know, the region of 2.4 billion dollars a year on T-Bet and skills education.
04:09If this is an average across ASEAN, then we are looking at about 100 billion ringgit or 24 billion US dollars.
04:16Annual government outlay just for T-Bet and skills training alone.
04:20And I am not counting the conventional academic or education funding.
04:26Yes, each member state has our own strength and core competencies.
04:31And also our national interests, right?
04:34But what is stopping us from developing a deeper collaboration to amplify our resources through pulling them together?
04:41Two months ago, in line with this spirit of sharing resources, and also in conjunction with the ASEAN years of skills 2025,
04:50Malaysia opened up our national training week for the first time to citizens of ASEAN beyond our borders.
04:57With a record-breaking number of participants at 3.5 million people all over ASEAN,
05:0310 times the number of participants last year,
05:07Malaysia offered over 72,000 free skills training courses valued at RM400 million to Malaysian citizens and fellow citizens of ASEAN.
05:21This is a demonstration of Malaysia's commitment to upskill ourselves and to collaborate with our neighbours to upskill our region.
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