The Sun daily, 18 April 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: The government will provide a RM100,000 incentive to all gold medallists at the upcoming World Skills Competition (WSC), Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.He said the incentive was a form of motivation from the government to boost the spirit of Malaysian delegates to bring the country its first gold medal at the competition."This is my promise. Any participant representing Malaysia in the WSC who brings back a gold medal, the government will provide an additional cash amount of RM100,000.

"It will be better if we get two medals. Even if we won five gold medals, the government is willing to provide the incentive," he said in his speech during the opening ceremony of the 'Road to WSC 2017 Abu Dhabi Gold' at Putra World Trade Centre here today.The 44th edition of the biennial WSC will be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from Oct 14-19, which will see Malaysian participants competing in 20 skills areas such as automobile technology and bricklaying.
Malaysia had not been able to win any gold medal since its participation in the competition, where its best performance was during the 2015 WSC in Sao Paulo, Brazil, gaining one bronze medal.Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid also highlighted the capability of Malaysia to produce its own skilled workers without relying heavily on foreign workforce.
He added he had suggested to the cabinet to give priority to local-bred skilled workers to be involved in mega projects in the country.He said if such measures could not be done, Malaysia would be at the losing end as there would be no transfer of knowledge to local talents."We need to be more serious and such efforts must be made by all parties as we do not want to rely on foreign skilled workers. We want to give more chances to locals," he said."We want to have skilled workers among locals especially if we want to emerge in the international stage," he added.