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00:06Hello and welcome to It's About Youth. I'm your host Fahna She. Now Budget 2027 just wrapped up
00:12with a lot of incentives and array of measures for youth. So here discussing it today are two
00:19very special guests, Ralph Ganjia Kang from Malaysian Youth Council as well as Kylie,
00:24Project Executive Director of Malaysian Public Policy Competition 2026 hosted by International
00:30Council of Malaysian Scholars. That's a mouthful. Alright okay we want to get straight into it
00:35because the budget was last week we've had a week to digest it so I want your opinion you know
00:41straight
00:41from the horse's mouth both youth representative here. So let's start with you know if you ask
00:47young Malaysians today what they wanted from the budget what would be the top of their list and
00:51how does the budget itself maybe overall address that concern. Maybe we can start with you Ralph.
00:58Sure I would say the main thing in everyone's mind especially the youth will be higher salary.
01:05Of course it's a non-negotiable thing considering the fact that our living cost is rising and also
01:14the inflation of items here and there right but of course thankfully the budget did address this issue.
01:23They raised from 1007 to 2000 now and this is only we should exclude MSMEs with a profit lesser than
01:3550 million
01:35and of course there's another category of 2005 for semi-professionals and grads and also to up the Glick and
01:47GLC salary to 3004 to you know
01:54standardize the salary game in the market. I would say this is a very good step moving forward.
02:06However, I have some concerns which perhaps I can address later on and I will pass the floor back to
02:13you.
02:14Okay so higher salary is probably among the top concern when it comes to youths and you know the one
02:19that we
02:20want to look out for in budget every year's budget. What about you Kylie? What are your thoughts?
02:24I think that young Malaysians a huge chunk of our daily expenses are towards living and what I would
02:33expect is to get a job then get a decent paid right and to think about career progression in the
02:39future.
02:40Right so I think budget 2027 do address this in different puzzle pieces and different ages of youth
02:48are being heard so we have incentive for people who are stepping into early education. For STPM there's
02:55like cash incentives for them and also for repayment of PTPTN. I think this is a huge benefit for
03:07people to get some breathing space. Right okay so higher salary as well as cost of living. Obviously the
03:14government has outlined you know several measures to tackle these two but we're not here for that.
03:20We want to comment and see you know what more we can improve as well but which budget measure you
03:25know out of all that was outlined do you think make the most tangible differences if you can pick out
03:30one or two. Maybe Kylie? So I actually did a calculation on the STEM duty exemption. Right so
03:40for someone who is looking for a house in Klang Valley area let's set it arranged like at a range
03:48of
03:48600,000 ringgit so if we're looking for a condominium at this price and 90% of mortgage to fund
03:56this
03:57the new incentive of the expansion of the threshold actually helps to save up to five digits. Right okay
04:06because uh in last year it was and okay so last year if we are looking for houses that is
04:17above 500,000
04:18ringgit the STEM duty exemption is not being covered so for this year houses that range from 500,000 to
04:28750,000
04:29100,000 there's a 50% exemption of the rest of the STEM duty. Right so after doing some calculations
04:38I
04:38think this huge amount of money can benefit you to either to boost their savings or even this amount
04:45of money can be into their future retirement funds. Yeah I mean you can pocket it somewhere else and so
04:50it's quite you know it's in numbers so it's quite a tangible differences there if you compare to last
04:55year what about you Ralph what's your opinion what's one measure that you think makes you know such a
05:00tangible difference to use? Well let me narrow it down to youth who are looking to start work or perhaps
05:10establish their own business right with your budget 2027 fortunately enough number one the there is a total
05:19of 270 million allocated to bsn and also agrobank to give um not only um to give sorry particularly
05:27gig workers to those who wants to start business or perhaps um want to purchase their first home right
05:33this big amount of allocation is is a good enough starting point for them of course moving on to the
05:39next
05:39point um there are about 6.6 billion allocated to banks for micro financing loan which focuses particularly on
05:49smaller businesses right so i believe youth who are you know innovative enough we has we have the time
05:59but we just like the capital right and all these loans they are some sort of a very good push
06:06for us okay
06:08some other things i would say perhaps one more would be the reduction deduction of one percent income tax
06:13yeah that is helpful a lot for us correct for those who offers who started working right with this one
06:21percent deduction we can save up about calculation says around six thousand i don't know whether it's
06:26true or not but i believe so and that's actually a lot a lot for us right and i would
06:32say this is a very
06:33tangible um solution for us yeah so you tackle more on the um sort of entrepreneurs and gig workers um
06:41as well as
06:42young professionals who are just starting up who are you know looking at um probably saving up a
06:47little bit where they can pocket like you said just now you know the housing um assistant might also be
06:52able we can pocket that uh right so there's salary there's employment there's housing a few stuff
06:59mentioned here but let's dive a little bit deeper so we look at um specific measures now with regards to
07:05employment so there were measures to support employment wages and skill development um i think
07:11the government has mentioned if i can look here minimum wage like you mentioned just now um bakat madani
07:17as well target 30 30 000 new job opportunities 8 billion ringgit in tivet allocations quite plenty
07:25um yeah and if you look at education as well there's also uh ptptn repayment deferment for borrowers all falls
07:34under sort of employment and job skills right i want to ask truthfully because we've had this kind
07:40of measures every year right do you think this kind of measures translate into better paying more
07:47secure jobs for young malaysian or is it more you know needed to address is there more needed to be
07:53done
07:53to address sort of job quality career progression wage growth those kind of things what do you make of
08:00the measures that we have right now maybe you're off quite technical question right but let me try
08:07um thank you um i would say um many other initiatives were introduced to how do you say upskill one
08:18or
08:18perhaps uplift someone's um skills okay in short but um whether it is a topic where
08:25um it will be sustainable in the next few years coming next few years um i suppose yes and no
08:34yes would
08:35be because um we are moving to that um area where everything is so expensive where we need to rise
08:44everything right okay however at the same time i would say no because we are scaring away the uh
08:51um companies who would then later on do not want to employ any more fresh grads or perhaps do not
09:00want to increase their manpower and starting to use ai to you know substitute all this and that's because
09:07perhaps with all this implement sorry with the implementation of all this um higher
09:15um for this particular topic salary right um companies would then find loopholes to try to pay lower
09:24salaries to all these people in order to sustain themselves because if you think of a mindset of a
09:30billion of a businessman a selfish one perhaps i would not want to uh you know pay so much for
09:36that amount
09:37of same work that can be done by some other people right um i hope i'm not staying too far
09:44from the
09:44topic i think i am so perhaps this is my two cents right so you're basically saying um there's also
09:52you
09:53know despite the assistance being given with regards to job and employment there's loophole for companies
10:00to sort of take advantage of use is that what you're saying correct all right okay you also mentioned
10:05cost of living just now and i think i want kylie to address this because it goes hand in hand
10:09job employment as well as you know people who are starting jobs who don't have money
10:13enough money to sustain their cost of living right um many young adults juggle with rent
10:19education loans family commitments and all that while trying to save for the first first home as
10:23well as you mentioned how much does budget 2027 actually ease this financial pressure
10:30so initially our basic minimum wage is 1700 and budget 2027 raised it to 2000 ringgit right so if we're
10:41looking for um okay from a perspective of someone living outside of clang valley i think this is a major
10:49difference because it does help them to upgrade their quality of life but for people who's living in clang
10:56valley let's talk about the rent here so if we're looking at um share housing or even a share room
11:04in
11:04kl it can cost up from 600 to 800 or above so the 300 raise actually is not a significant
11:14change but it does
11:16help in some sense but i do think that um with the assistance of deferment payment for ptpdm it does
11:25help
11:25youth to have more breathing space and we also need to think about not just the demand side but the
11:34supplier side okay the supply of housing is there more houses that are affordable for people looking
11:41into the demand because not everyone is looking to acquire a house but they are also looking to rent a
11:48house because some people might not be ready to buy that so i think we also need to look into
11:53the supply
11:54side for rental housing markets so okay so instead of you know cash assistant or the breeding space
12:01that you mentioned just now but also look at sort of structural um systematic problems that we already
12:07have underground like for example housing affordability and all that right okay um one important concern um
12:15that is being highlighted more and more each year is ai because we've known you know the rapid development
12:21of ai and the fear of it you know displacing jobs for a lot of use so obviously you know
12:27the government
12:28has proposed free or subsidized ai subscription and access to digital skills more digital skills this
12:35has been ongoing for a year but i think there's a bit more emphasis this year right but do you
12:41think
12:41you know even with you know this kind of access do young malaysians actually need more than this not just
12:48access to ai subscription per se but maybe career pathways or better protection against job displacement
12:56what do you make of you know this particular topic okay okay okay so i do think it's important for
13:05youth to be exposed and to adopt ai in their workforce but the government is also raising the minimum wage
13:14so it pulls us to um two forces actually right we are making ai cheaper for companies to adopt them
13:23and automation and basic jobs could be easier to replace and because there's a cheaper substitute so
13:30company might tend to move to it to that point okay but we are also raising the salary of fresh
13:39grad
13:39so it's more expensive to hire a human to do the work so i think this is kind of contradicting
13:47okay yeah and
13:52i know we're in a transition period right now but there's need there need to be a balance and i
14:00would
14:01say the reformation and redefinition of graduate role is very important because right now we're making
14:08um routine tasks easier to be replaced by ai and we need to think about what can youth and what
14:16can
14:16fresh graduate can contribute to create value right so we've covered quite a lot here in terms of what
14:22the budget entails for youth but there's more to come so we'll go for a quick break first
14:40hello and welcome back to is about youth i'm your host fanash and today i'm joined by ralph from
14:45malaysian youth council as well as kylie from um the malaysian public policy competition program right and
14:52with the first block just now we talked about you know some of the challenges when it comes to youth
14:57as well as how the budget has been addressing it how this year's budget has been addressing it we want
15:02to go a little bit bigger picture now and look at you know what's missing in the budget because we've
15:07talked about some of the incentive and how it addresses these concerns but i'm sure there's probably more
15:12that can be done right so looking beyond the measures announced right now what is the biggest gap in budget
15:192027 when it comes to supporting young malaysians maybe highly we can start with you okay i think the
15:27biggest gap is still the imbalance of demand and supply side okay so uh for wages the employers they have
15:38to
15:39give more money to give more money and to allocate more money in human resources to pay for the salaries
15:48and we also need to take note of being able to keep up with the productivity of work being
15:56delivered okay because if the company is not doing well yet they have to increase their minimum wage to
16:042000 and even for um semi-skilled workers and also um fresh graduate it takes about 2.5k and it's
16:15just
16:15adding the cost of the company so i think it will be a survival question for some who might not
16:21being
16:23in a good condition and also there's there's always a takeoff so there's someone who get benefit from it
16:31and someone who doesn't so i think maybe in budget 2027 the beneficial side would be for people who's
16:39looking for a job but maybe in the next term it should be incentive for companies who is providing
16:48the benefits so it balance out both sides right so you're saying the missing gap is looking at
16:57how companies can do more for youths is that what you're saying yes yes right okay um what about you
17:04um i've written down a few of the uh okay we're excited to hear but let me just pick and
17:10choose um
17:11one or two i would say number one would be the um um subsidization for um improvement of mental health
17:19okay okay use nowadays they always talk about mental health here and there blah blah you've seen videos on
17:23tiktok where they say generous is strawberry in fact i partially agree and partially do not but let
17:29me let's not go into the debate let me just tell you the harsh reality is that um many youth
17:34nowadays
17:34they face um too much pressure as compared to their previous generation and not only that it is coupled
17:40together with a rise of living cost um inflation of all these um items and all that yeah don't forget
17:47fear of climate change as well correct that's one of it yeah um so i would say that perhaps if
17:52given the
17:53chance and government still has the uh the space to include this in i think having this um mental health
18:01or perhaps therapy or perhaps um what is it that we have in school consultation consultation counseling um
18:09um session or more of it would be so you're suggesting sort of subsidized mental health therapy
18:15session so when we have a more subsidized or perhaps affordable therapy sessions it would somehow you
18:22know create a ripple effect where youth would then see that they with their minimal amount of salary could
18:28then afford to go to therapy to you know better align their mental um capacity to work you know go
18:38in the
18:38long run and all that stuff that is one point i would say um if the government could um perhaps
18:44um try and consider this i would say it's very good um the second point this is a rather not
18:50too
18:51concerning but a little bit concerning for me i'm just wondering why um because it was not um
18:56mentioned during their table of the supply bill um this year is um ptpk per badanan tabung pembangunan
19:03kemahiran it is something like a t-vetting right this is an initiative under the ministry of human resource
19:11they've recently reduced the allocation for it from 650 to 500 only and that's a little bit concerning
19:20because this is some sort of a loan which targets um students from not too strong financial background
19:29which relies a lot on these loans to further pursue their studies in p-vet industries right
19:37so i'm just wondering why would the government do that and if the government are listening perhaps
19:41you guys can try and provide an explanation these few days that would be best um to me these two
19:48are
19:48the more concerning um highlights right okay so i'm looking at more comprehensive mental health support
19:59i would say um because mental health facilities are there um but some are not subsidized and although
20:06the government one can be quite cheap but information and awareness of it is to me personally it's not
20:12that apparent like people don't know where to go um and also looking at you know how we can support
20:17those in the lower income background with regards to t-vet right right okay definitely you know something
20:24that the government have to look at and i'm pretty sure if they're watching this show
20:27um these two have highlighted this you know these two concerns um but okay i want to talk a little
20:33bit about implementation now because we can talk every you know for long hours about measures here
20:40incentive that you know looking at you know how we can improve the life of young malaysians
20:45but how do we actually measure that how do we look at implementation here
20:50um what role do i guess organizations such as yourself look at when we come when we look at
20:58accountability and making sure that the government fulfill their promises and measure the success of
21:03young malaysians with regards to this budget um incentives maybe highly we can start with you sure
21:08um so um i think that in terms of implementation from policy maker side it might be just their
21:20storytelling okay but for people who is experiencing it we need to see something visible so indicators
21:28and dashboard or just notifications and something that informs the public is very important so i would
21:37suggest having something that is visible and accessible for the public to see that there are differences
21:42being made so let's talk about employment so to measure employability rather than just saying how many
21:51jobs that are being created why not make it more specific like more specific in terms of uh what industry
21:58what sectors what are the starting pay and what are the retention of employment so you can see this before
22:07someone telling them this industry is not doing okay so there's something visible for them to feel
22:14and how youth organization can step in um personal story i'm from the malaysian public policy competition
22:22so we are acting at like a vital bridge of communication between minister ministries and students so we provide
22:34trainings mentorship and data driven approach to educate students about national issues and um to teach them
22:46how to look beyond the headlines and innovate in pop policy solution and also trying to understand the
22:54environment so i think awareness is important so youth organization could probably do better in
23:01raising awareness to let youth understand what they can apply for and what they're eligible for so
23:08these incentives wouldn't be missed by them right and can i interject yes sure thank you um i would take
23:16the uh standpoint of the malaysian youth council and take note of that that youth organization should do
23:22better i agree and thus we have just only because of this launch a uh application called um pantau belia
23:30pantau belia you can download so it's just a recently launched app and we are still um on the in
23:37the
23:37midst of upgrading it in short what it can do is to provide anyone the user users don't even have
23:45to
23:45register an account to access the app and search whatever you want to search um in regards to um
23:52the uh implementation of any policies or laws by the government right whether they have already done
23:58it or not and also you can there's a simulation game inside where you act as the minister of finance
24:04where you play some games inside no i i what i'm trying to say is this is an app built
24:10for malaysian
24:10youth to check whether the government has promised what they're supposed to do whether they have done
24:18their part and we some sort act as a third force for check and balance but we cannot rely fully
24:25on the
24:26executives to check for the legislative level yada yada and all that sort right and um
24:33no enough i'll pass back the floor to you
24:36i mean i applaud both of you for doing your bit in helping supporting young malaysians you with
24:43malaysian public policy competition engaging more youth making them more aware of all the
24:48policies out there and debating about them as well making sure that you know youths take charge and
24:53making of their future and pantau belia i'm guessing is a very very innovative way to ensure that you know
25:01all this check and balances are in place and with regards to the budget as well you know a lot
25:05of
25:05these promises are being turned into policies as well one day so i applaud both of you for for doing
25:11your part and and engaging more youths to be a part of this change as well we're running out of
25:17time so i
25:17only have one last question to both of you looking towards the next budget right i know it's a bit
25:23far
25:23ahead but we can prepare if you could push for one policy change or additional measure per se to better
25:30support young malaysians what would it be or what should you prioritize maybe in brief um ralph maybe
25:37i believe there's a need to introduce such a bill or such an act called the rental tenancy act
25:44right okay yeah this is just to standardize the the rental rental amount across malaysia so that the
25:52landlord would not arbitrarily increase that um rental sesuka hati that would be one short
26:00brief explanation i mean this has been ongoing and it's to safeguards young renters as well so i'm
26:05i'm happy that you brought that up what about you kai for me i think transparency is very important okay
26:11so for youth to get accessible to budgets and also to what industry wants okay because things are being
26:20hidden and some information can only be um obtained if you have more close relationship with someone who is
26:28more senior in the industry okay so i think having a national wage and employment transparency framework
26:35is important so before people making huge decisions such as choosing their career their course of study
26:43they understand what the industry expect from them and they can also hold each other accountable so
26:49university wouldn't be competing on their marketing but in terms of outcome they produce and
26:56for employers they can compete on whether they are creating real jobs or it's just fake vacancy right so
27:04transparent informative industry knowledge we have to make sure that's embedded before we even start
27:12the budget right to make sure that the budget actually targets what it needs to target right okay i think
27:19that's all the time we have thank you so much both of you ralph and kylie for being here and
27:23for unpacking the
27:24budget with me it's been you know one week to digest it it's good that we get to do this
27:29here at it's
27:30about you we hope to have you back probably next year for budget 2028 thank you so much thank you
27:35and
27:36thank you for watching those at home i'm fina shee see you again
27:41you