M'sia's Economy Will Not Collapse Because Of Minimum Wage, Said M'sian HR Minister

SERI KEMBANGAN (Selangor, Malaysia), March 5 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Human Resource Minister Dr S. Subramaniam said the minimum wage policy, when implemented will not cause Malaysia's economy to collapse. He also assured that the policy will not have any undue impact on the overall economy. "You must realise that we are not the first country to introduce minimum wages. Countries like the United States and United Kingdom have been having it for a long, long time. "All the economy did not collapse. So to say our economy will collapse is not true," he told reporters after presenting certificates to Astro Broadcast Traineeship 2011 Programme trainees, here, Monday. He was asked to comment on the fear that implementation of the policy will have negative impacts on productivity and the economy. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was also quoted saying recently that the policy could cause the country to go bankrupt. Subramaniam said that as Malaysia shifted towards the goal of a high income economy, it should be competing with developed countries like Singapore or Taiwan, and not comparing itself with countries like Vietnam or Cambodia. "Our wages at present are much lower. To me, we should be competing at the higher level, with countries like Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. "We want people to get wages above the minimum wage, not at the minimum wage," he said. As such he said the country still had the capacity to increase its wages and at the same time expand the economy. -- BERNAMA