Government Will Continue To Focus On Human Capital Development - Najib

By Ahmad Fuad Yahya

JAKARTA, Nov 29 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak said the government will continue to focus on human capital development to make Malaysia a developed country.

The Prime Minister said the people were Malaysia's greatest asset and that huge investments in human capital development can guarantee a better future for Malaysia.

"I believe in equal access to education, we must create opportunities as wide as possible but we cannot ensure equal outcomes as this depends on our own efforts.

"If we work hard, we will get better results than others (who don't work as hard)," he said at a dinner with Malaysian students in Indonesia at the multi-purpose hall of the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta in Kuningan, South Jakarta here Friday night.

Najib said Malaysia each year gave the largest allocation for the moulding of new generations through education and continued to give scholarships for its students to pursue studies abroad, in almost all corners of the world .

At the event, the prime minister launched the Jakarta iM4u Outreach Centre, the third international outreach centre after London and New York.

He also presented a RP37 million (RM10,000) cheque to the Jakarta iM4U Outreach Centre to organise volunteer activities.

Najib urged Malaysian students in Indonesia involved in the iM4U volunteer movement to provide services to orphanages, old folk homes and mosques so that Malaysia would be held in high regard by locals.

To date, 700,000 volunteers have registered with the iM4U movement which boasted 1,500 projects.

On the Malaysian Medical Association's claim that there are too many medical students graduating every year and not enough hospitals to train them, Najib said the government would ensure that all medical graduates would be able to do housemanship and get jobs.