KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 22): Malaysia should look beyond the headline value of investments and focus on whether they create better-paying skilled jobs, raise productivity and strengthen local companies, Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said.
He said investment figures alone do not guarantee better returns for Malaysians, while the country’s wage problem cannot be pinned on foreign direct investment (FDI) alone as wage compression is driven by several structural factors.
Akmal said the government’s wage agenda under the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) will therefore go beyond minimum-wage protection to include stronger wage progression and better pay for highly skilled workers.
The government is also undertaking a comprehensive review of the Progressive Wage Policy, with an assessment of its effectiveness expected by end-2026 or early 2027.
“Investment figures alone do not guarantee good returns for the people,” Akmal told reporters after the Economy Ministry’s monthly assembly on Tuesday.
He said investments should be assessed not only based on the number of jobs created, but also on how many skilled and semi-skilled jobs they generate, whether local vendors benefit, and whether productivity and workers’ skills improve.
“We definitely want to look for investment that can actually be translated into added value across the sectors that we are focusing on, so it’s not just the number of investments coming in,” he said.
Akmal said Malaysia’s relatively low wages should not be attributed to the type of FDI attracted to the country alone, as wage compression is driven by several structural factors.
He noted that the wage gap between low-skilled and semi-skilled workers has narrowed, reflecting limited wage progression among workers higher up the skill ladder.
The comments come a day after the Department of Statistics Malaysia released its Salaries and Wages Survey 2025, which showed the median monthly wage for Malaysian citizens rising 5.3% to RM2,940 in 2025 from RM2,793 a year earlier.
The wage gap across skill groups remained sizeable, with skilled workers earning a median RM5,057 a month in 2025, compared with RM2,223 for semi-skilled workers and RM1,758 for low-skilled workers.
On the Progressive Wage Policy, Akmal said government incentives should come together with productivity improvements, including training, rather than merely raising wages without corresponding improvements by employers.