- 2 months ago
Selangor International Care Summit 2025 highlights the care economy’s role in inclusive growth. YB Anfaal Saari, Selangor State Exco for Women Development and Social Welfare, shares insights on creating quality jobs in the care sector, driving supportive policies, and strengthening social ecosystems to meet the needs of an ageing population and modern families.
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00:00Terima kasih kerana menikmati kami. Ini adalah The Economy.
00:10Dengan saya di pejabat saya sekarang adalah Anfal Sya'ari.
00:16Dia adalah Ex-Co of Women's Development or the Executive Council of the Committee of the Women's Development here at the Selangor State Government.
00:25We are going to be talking about the Selangor International Care Summit that's going to be done on the 9th until the 11th of October this year at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
00:35Waibu, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us.
00:38This is of course the International Care Summit is on the back of the Selangor International Business Summit, SIBS, which Estrawani has been covering for quite some time now.
00:51How does the Care Summit tie in or jive in with the SIBS 2025?
00:57Thank you, Ibrahim. I believe that Care Economy Policy of Selangor and we launched it in November 2024, we have 39 strategies.
01:07and we believe that by organizing this summit, it will be an umbrella where you can actually gather all the stakeholders and covering from the expo, the exhibition and talking about through forums and this in the frame of economy.
01:25So, it jive with Selangor International Business Summit.
01:29So, previously, for the past 8 years, Selangor International Business Summit has been covering, I think, 5 to 6 components,
01:38where from the aeroparks and also for developers.
01:43and this year, they dropped one program or component, which is Health Science.
01:49So, I requested for another element, which is Care Economy, to be included in Selangor International Business Summit.
01:56And, of course, what will be some of the key objectives that you intend to achieve over the 3-day period of the summit?
02:02Okay. So, there are many stakeholders, namely the caregivers from either individuals, family members, or also the CSO, Civil Society Organizations.
02:15And we also have policy makers, the academia, and from this 3-day program, we'll have throughout the 3-day care expo,
02:26where we gather 60 exhibitors from the healthcare line, from the think tank groups,
02:31and also we managed to get 3 JLC from states of Selangor, like Wanita Berdaya Selangor and Selgate,
02:40and also Yayasan Warisan Anak Selangor.
02:43And other than expo, we'd like to showcase what is it exactly Selangor Care Economy Policy
02:52that actually can benefit either the industry players and also the caregivers.
02:58And, second objective, we'd like to have engagement session with the NGOs and also the caregivers,
03:07where currently, at the moment, we don't have any legislation that actually protect the interest or,
03:14I mean, legislate for the caregivers.
03:16We yet to have RUU Profession Pekerja Sosial,
03:21but then that social work doesn't really focus on caregiving,
03:25but then we'd like to hear what are the issues, the real issues from the caregivers.
03:31So, the third one is to promote opposition Selangor as the hub for care economy in the Asian region,
03:40so that we can actually promote this industry, the care industry, for the players
03:46and also attract either care financing or investment in Selangor.
03:51So, let's unpack all three, I suppose.
03:54The first one is, of course, the care economy policy of Selangor.
03:58Maybe we can deep dive into that for a bit because even I am unfamiliar with the care economy policy of Selangor.
04:06So, what is it that you'd like to highlight ahead of the summit for our viewers right now that are watching this?
04:12Okay.
04:13In reality, we have to accept in 2030, we are going to hit of aging aging nation,
04:23where 25% or 15% of our population will be 65 years old and above.
04:29So, there will be a slowing of economic activities and we also have issues of low fertility rate,
04:37which is a replacement rate is 2.1, but currently Selangor is among four states in Malaysia
04:43where we have only 1.6 replacement rate or total fertility rate.
04:49So, looking at this spectrum, the elderly and also child care,
04:53so we have to consider the beneficiaries of care, namely child care, the elderly, the sick
05:00and also for OQ or person with disabilities.
05:05So, in Selangor Care Economy Policy, we have five pillars.
05:10First is on the advocacy and promotion, second one on the legislation and guidelines and good governance
05:17and third one is to upgrade the pathway or the career path of caregivers
05:22and fourth one is collaboration and investment and fifth one, we would like to promote the innovation
05:30and technology within this care economy.
05:35All this is actually quite crucial and while I'm familiar with the replacement rate of Selangor
05:40being 1.6, there is also another element that we need to look into emigration into the state as well.
05:46which is the highest among other states and more so than wilayah actually.
05:51Wouldn't this bring about that whole idea of overpopulation or in terms of demographic changes,
05:58it does bring some sort of stress towards how we manage our elderly here in Selangor?
06:05Towards emigration, we want to position with the active population which increasing the productivity.
06:13So, we want to change rather than focusing on only E&E, electrical and electronic manufacturing.
06:20There is another segment that can contribute to our GDP or Selangor Economic Activities which is servicing.
06:26which is servicing.
06:27So, other than hospitality, we see the, I mean the high populated area like in Petaling Jaya
06:35where most residential houses change or transform into like senior living, we have assisted living, independent living.
06:43but we see that there needs a change or I mean accommodation of hybrid model.
06:50That's what we call Care Diamond where we redistribute the responsibilities between only government, I mean through public institutions to private and reshare between a family institution, the private sphere to community base.
07:05So, there are multiple models that one size doesn't fix all where actually, I mean more workers but we would like to create career pathway for the caregivers and care workers.
07:20I'd like to also look into the second element that you spoke of just now, the first being the policy, the second being the care economy worker protection.
07:27and, you know, we have the Rang Nung Dang Kick Worker, Rang Nung Dang Dasar Gaji Progressive, pardon me, not the bill.
07:38How does those kind of national level policies assist in the vision of Selangor especially when it comes to your portfolio, women empowerment as well as the care economy,
07:48trying to tie these up from state law making ideas or mission with that of the federal?
07:55For instance, we rolled out or we organized this program called Care Accelerator Program where it is our test case or experiment on how do we actually promote and encourage this care players.
08:10For example, we have one of the winners is Teman Malaysia.
08:14So, Teman is a companionship.
08:16What they did is like a geek where they can use apps and technology or what not, where they provide within certain radius area that the client might call them to get their services,
08:31whether to be a companion for the elderly to go to the hospital or to for their running their errands.
08:38So, this will tie with a geek, an economic geek, an undang-undang, and also that there's some loophole in terms of protecting the rights of caregivers.
08:51So, what we like to push for federal to come up with an undang-undang akta that actually protect in terms of career projection and also the rights for the care workers.
09:04And another one is how we can actually protect these workers rather than going to abroad.
09:13For example, we have a pool of nurses from MSU, university or other local universities but they are going to other countries that are offering them higher salary.
09:26So, this is where we put the first pillar is advocacy and promotion where we want to destigmatization of care workers as like welfare or charity work.
09:39So, by putting the importance and getting more investment, it is very important and critical to ensure that all these federal acts and legislation
09:54will actually promote these care economy activities.
09:58Through my work at YASM Peraju, we also did assisted care living program for our talents to learn how to become advanced caregivers for the elderly.
10:10But I am saddened to report that many of our talents that we trained under the government funding that we received from YASM Peraju,
10:17many of those talents have left for Australia specifically because of the higher pay wages there.
10:23It is with the intense anticipation that one day they will return but we don't have a program here in Malaysia where assisted care living,
10:30I hesitate to call them nurses but more of assisted caregivers or care living givers.
10:40We don't have that advanced stage yet where we can also reduce the burden on the national healthcare system, reduce the need for us to have doctors and nurses as well.
10:51Do you see this talent shortage especially in this area a widening concern and something that we need to quickly address in order for us to continue to support the entire ecosystem of the care economy?
11:04Okay.
11:05I foresee the potentials because we had early discussion with Bapenas is like an EPU for Indonesian government,
11:14government for public Indonesia where they want to have like internship program with Malaysia in terms of care giving rather than like domestic worker.
11:24So that talent pool of their workers to be trained in Malaysia and come back to their country, that's another potential.
11:33And second one, how could we do certification? Like currently under Kementerian Wanita, they have this program under Institut Social Malaysia to train the care workers.
11:47but we yet to see how that can actually guarantee the career projection for the care workers.
11:54So what we want to do in Selangor is to do the certification, possibly through UNICEF, our Selangor University, how we can actually advocate and change not only for the nursing diploma but also for this care worker.
12:11because we like to identify this TVET actually there are a vast opportunities for our youth out there who didn't want to pursue for other higher learning education institutions.
12:27So I believe we have to create this pathway and in fact yesterday we had discussion and getting input from the NGO namely like Masoch Care.
12:39So Masoch Care based in if I'm not mistaken in Negeri Sembilan and they already tied up with Perak state or state government to get funds.
12:49For example, they have this like fund of a grant of 5 million ringgit to give trainings to the local people and giving care workers.
12:59and what I see it is interesting is the offering is quite high so that they can retain the talent.
13:07They started with the offering of 2007 to 2007.
13:12So it has to be interesting enough and I mean to entice the talent pool to stay in Malaysia.
13:22So this is how we can actually do it by government intervention, collaboration with the private sectors and also getting support from the community like the civil society organizations.
13:33Speaking of which, we also need to look at the market sizing of the care economy and of course the cultural dimensions of it.
13:43I would assume Chinese communities would have little to no friction when it comes to care economy, caregivers but I'm not too sure about other communities and other races.
13:54Do you see this as an impeding factor on us growing the care economy even further?
13:59Or how do you see this evolve into a situation where once we become an aged nation in 2030 or 2050, will sentiments then change when we approach those kind of time frame?
14:10I strongly believe that even among the Malay and Indian community, let's focus on Malay where we have this spiritual belief of Birul Walidain, like serving your parents, going Ehsan, like repaying their deeds.
14:29We want to have a hybrid model where it's like a daycare for the elderly to tackle, to address the issue of loneliness and also depression.
14:42Because when we talk about care, it's not about healthcare, it's about the quality life after pension age.
14:50So when we have findings or data from the researchers, some of these institutions or daycare for the elderly, not only addressing the issue of children who are busy with their work life and whatnot,
15:05but then more on engaging with their peers or colleagues.
15:10So we like to shift or change the paradigm of sending your elderly, like dumping your parents, like dah tak nak layan parents or whatnot.
15:22But then it's more on having a quality life for both the children who still have to earn income by working and also for the parents to have like proper engagement with their colleagues and their peers.
15:38And they can actually have quality life by having like a pondok modern.
15:43And I'm proud to say that in Selangor, we have a cell gate as our JLC who have senior living, senior berhad.
15:52It's a project of developing Malay Muslim independent and also assisted living in Bangi.
15:59So this is kind of models that we want to shift and to prepare our state to boost the economy.
16:09We don't want to come to come to 2030 when there are plenty of elderly and we are not prepared in terms of the infrastructure, the model and the system to provide the support for the elderly.
16:22And yet we see the impact deteriorating impact to the economy activities.
16:29So this is the part where I have to touch a bit about politics because for the first time, the Pakatan Harapan Prime Minister is in sync with the Pakatan Harapan Menteri Besar of Selangor.
16:43With this relationship, do you see upsides in the past few years of this administration, the Bandhani administration, when it comes to state federal relationship?
16:56I think the whole country knows that Selangor is the richest state in the land.
17:01We also know that immigration and immigration entrusted is the highest. Traffic between the state and federal is the highest. Everything is the highest. It's like just logical.
17:11But in terms of legislation, framework, governance, gazetment of rule of law and many others, has that improved between state and federal, specifically between Selangor and the federal territories?
17:24I would say Selangor is more progressive and it is easier because less bureaucracy because when you see in the federal, all the government has to consider all kinds of legislation like rule of law.
17:39But for example, for instance, for the person with disabilities, in Selangor we have, we just launched Yayasan Insan Istimewa Selangor Anak Selangor, where previously it was only a department in Yayasan Warisan Anak Selangor.
17:56and under the purview of the previous EXCO, YB Dr. Siti Mariah, she pushed this agenda of launching it as a Yayasan Foundation where we can actually leverage on the private and corporate contribution.
18:13So, Tengku Pemaisuri Selangor just launched it on the 9th of August. So, this agenda on upgrading the quality of life for a person with disabilities, I mean, we have a not stumbling block but then it's like, it's an obstacle to get through in terms of legislation and protection for the person with disabilities.
18:34We cannot do enactment yet because there is an act for the person with disabilities who by the federal. So, if you do an enactment, it would contradict the act.
18:47Yeah, but there are other matters that actually we can discuss smoothly with the federal government such as for women policy.
18:59Okay.
19:00But then, I could see that with Penang as an example for the discussing the agenda of the only women, the women only additional seats to us. It didn't get through in Penang. But then, we promoted and discussed that agenda to Kementerian Wanita.
19:20And last month, we have, we organized, Wanita Berdaya Serangor organized agenda outlook forum. We managed to invite our Menteri, Datuk Sri Nancy Syukri and she fully supported.
19:33So, with this kind of alignment of Prime Minister from Pakatan Harapan and also Menteri Besar from Pakatan Harapan, we really hope that most of the agenda politically can be done smoothly with this.
19:50And we've seen how Selangor has performed while the Prime Minister is not in sync. And so, in case or in the event of a situation where it's a reversal, it would be business as usual for Selangor.
20:03But now, there would be an upside. Do you see some opportunities that have yet to materialize considering that the political alignment is there? And perhaps you need a little bit more time in terms of trying to get more out of this relationship and alignment between federal and state?
20:17Okay. For instance, for care economy, when Menteri Besar handed me this responsibility, it is like tebas lalang. There was no reference at federal at all. So, we managed to start with a symposium, technical working group and within a year, we managed to roll out or launch this care economy policy.
20:43We had discussion with Kementerian Wanita. There's some dispute in terms of the terminology whether they want to use care economy or care industry and the latest one is long-term care, LTC.
20:58So, this discussion is actually for me healthy because we also invited to international conference discussing about care economy.
21:08So, what did you guys land on? Care economy, not long-term care?
21:11For Malaysia, for Selangor, we are very clear about it because we use this care economy. How care being used as a catalyst or enable for this activation of economic sector, particularly in service sector.
21:29And by looking at UN Women's model, they frame it as one of the tiers in economic sector that actually become a prime enabler. Once you remove it or you don't focus it or it is hidden or invisible, it will cause other economic sectors to collapse.
21:49There's also some interesting elements here because by being state government, many of the municipalities are within your ambit and rezoning of some municipalities to allow for residential housing to be changed into care centers is also a lot easier, far easier than I can imagine being federal.
22:08But then comes the limitation in terms of attracting private enterprises to come in and set up shop here in Selangor. Do you see that as a key challenge to overcome and navigate or that just that's just business as usual as well?
22:24Businesses would come if there is a market for it. How do you see that that chicken and egg argument when it comes to attracting private money coming in and setting up more care centers in the state?
22:34Actually, private institution or businesses has gone far further than the intervention from the government state government. For example, I could name like Sunway Sanctuary from Sunway, Acacia Pacific Living in Kleng, Bandar Raja Kelang.
22:56And they actually come across with some obstacles. For example, they requested on the fire department policy or guidelines that actually hinder the building to be higher.
23:12And second one on the 8% SST. I mean, they are doing service although it's profit making, but it's not lucrative for them to, I mean, come up or back up that 8% SST. So, the all these potentials, the private institutions were happy or not, they will take this opportunity to build or provide these services.
23:38services, whether it's targeting the T20, the upper tier of M40, middle tier, but then it is how Selangor as a state government to encourage or build that ecosystem that will promote that collaboration between state and also private institution.
23:57So, going back to the care summit, because a lot more of what we discussed today can be unpacked at that particular summit that is of course currently happening on the 9th to 11th of October at the Kuala Lumpur Inventure Center.
24:08and there's going to be care forums, there's going to be care exhibition, there's going to be business matching as well as town halls.
24:15and since it's co-organized by Invest Langor, Wanita Berdaya Selangor, MBI and of course the state government itself, how many people are you expecting, what kind of key highlights that you want people to look out for, is it you have to pay for entry and most importantly your own personal mission, what would be some of the agenda that you personally would be looking at?
24:38Okay, we co-organized with Invest Langor, so Invest our advisor on how do we go about this care summit, so this is the first I mean I would say inaugural in Malaysia and particularly in Selangor, we would like to gather and showcase the innovative products or services by our local people and it's a platform to exchange ideas and
25:07so that any businesses could actually pitch their idea or looking for investors and through care town hall and care forum, these are the two platforms where I would like to spark the discussion and the discourses about pertaining to issues related to caregiving and also the beneficiaries.
25:28I bet you the right person to want to attend would definitely be my sister, she's a she's a rehab specialist working out of Selayang Hospital and she's into not just rehab but of course care economy as well, I think she'll be very much interested to attend to these conferences.
25:46and it is free, throughout 3 days and through we have care exhibition, Alhamdulillah all 60 booths are occupied at the moment and this care forum we have 3 international speakers from Japan, from Indonesia and also from Australia, we also have regional speakers and local speakers.
26:07and throughout 3 days and throughout 3 days we have Kido Care where they have this section for child minding activities or section.
26:17This is how we actually execute, I mean walk the talk, I mean we just don't want to show that we want to take care of the beneficiaries but then throughout this program we can show to people that they can actually come and attend the conference and yet they are
26:36their young ones can be taken care of and we have one unique session which is care business matching when you go through any interested parties go to the Selangor Care Summit website they can actually inquire or they can actually offer what are the offerings between the 2 parties.
26:55Thank you very much, this has been a very interesting conversation, I have been looking at the care economy element for quite some time now along with my sister but she's coming in from the actual care and longevity of the patients and the growing ever market that she's going to be facing over the years to come.
27:12but for me I'm looking at the business side and make no doubt there is a lot of economic activities that can be buzzing around the care economy space.
27:21Again if you want to learn more just head on to the social media sites of the Selangor State Government as well as SIBS, the Selangor International Business Summit along with the Selangor International Care Summit that's going to happen in a few weeks time.
27:35but for now we bid our thanks to Yang Muhammad, Anfal Shaari, the State Exco of Selangor and the State Representative of Taman Templar and for now we go back to our regular programming, thank you very much for watching, catch you in the next one.
28:05where can we hear a person, everybody else go ahead.
28:07Thank you very much.
28:11Adios.
28:16Thanks Dr.
28:21alten
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