Since its inception in 2016, the Iskandar Malaysia Employment Grant (IMEG) has assisted 248 businesses in Johor in keeping 3,200 Malaysian employees on staff and recruiting new ones.
Using financial rebates against salaries paid to be used for on-the-job upskilling and reskilling of the employees, Datuk Badrul Hisham Kassim, chief executive of the Iskandar Regional Development Authority, claimed that the job-matching scheme has helped the businesses in retaining their workforce or hiring new workers.
In a statement, he said that the programme had helped businesses establish productive, long-lasting workforces and lessen their need on migrant labour, particularly during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
He noted that women made up 40% of all IMEG recipients and indicated that the workers’ basic salaries had increased by 12%.
Tourism, advanced manufacturing, and the logistics industry were the top three areas where workers had benefited the most from the grant’s third payment, IMEG 3.0, which was disbursed from July of last year to May of this year, added Badrul Hisham.
IMEG is funded by the government’s stimulus packages, the Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) and the Covid-19 Fund (KWC-19).
“Ultimately, it is the people from targeted communities, such as unemployed graduates, single mothers and those affected by the pandemic, who benefitted the most as they were able to keep their job or get hired.
“This is very much in line with Iskandar Malaysia’s focus on economic and social recovery in these few years,” he said.
More than 250 human resource executives and practitioners examined the most recent trends and problems in human capital at the Iskandar Malaysia Human Resource Summit 2023, which Badrul Hisham had previously attended. This was especially true in the post-pandemic age.
The Iskandar Malaysia Employment Grant (IMEG) is a strategic incentive provided to businesses in the Iskandar Malaysia region as an incentive to boost employment in the economic zone.
The grant has a broad societal goal and is directed at particular populations. Through a financial return on salary paid to Malaysian employees at the company, this matching grant offers relief to hiring organisations.
Subsidy up to 50% of wages or up to RM2500 per month for 6 months.
